September 14, 2004

Question from the Virtual Chautauqua

VC: "What made you commit pen to paper, as it were, to write this book? What was your writing process?"

When I started taking lessons in Go, from Paul Hu, the American champion at the time, the nuggets from the lessons were the rules of thumb that dictated better play when I would Go wrong. "Play away from strength" "Two meanings per move is better than one" "Don't play moves without purpose" "Eat what you can eat" "Safety First" "Attack from a distance." These "rules" appeared sporadically throughout my lessons.

As a linguist in school, I thought that I'd organize the rules into types. For instance, "Eat what you can eat" means to remove the opponent's position - on the verge of death - or prone to being eaten - from play by "eating" or capturing it. In Go, this is removing potential bad aji - the Japanese word for taste; that is, something that can linger and bite you later. In a sense, then, this rule is akin to other rules about extinguishing risk. Once you combine this with other rules like "Safety First" or "A stitch in time saves nine" (Go teachers are not adverse to using colloquial proverbs), you get a whole slew of rules around the term safety. In the book, it is part of the chapter Owe Save.

Comparing these rules with my father's rules from business, I saw the parallels. Most every business rule had a corresponding Go rule. On leaving for Japan and then coming back (another story, best left for the book), I continued to find these rules in most every topic.

Cooking, dating, business, politics, sports, and war all seemed to have in common the very same underlying rules. For more than a decade, I gathered these rules, tried to organize them, but left them for the back burner. That is until, I left the Industry Standard and had some time to reflect.

At that point, I felt that I had gathered and confirmed enough that these Go rules had their parallels wherever strategy was found. I investigated how to get the book published and after a few years of editing, rewriting, reorganizing and tinkering, the Way of Go was born.

Posted by wayofgo at 03:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 09, 2004

Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan

I get a number of questions about what Go would say about how to handle Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan among other conflicts and struggles throughout the world.

The first thing, I'd advise all Go players, and likewise, everyone else, is to figure out what you want (Us) and what the opponent (Them) wants. Then look at where you stand, given where you're standing. Are you comfortably reading this in the confines of the suburbs on DSL, T-1, or a cable modem? Or, are you thinking about this problem as the stench of dead bodies permeate the air, guns go off around you, and water and electricity is unavailable? Put yourself in different shoes, mentally. Walk around in them and then think again about what you want and what the opponent wants.

Second, realize that we you can't really play good Go unless you see the board. If your information about what's on the board does not mesh well with what's actually on the board, you're likely to make poor choices. None of the above-mentioned conflicts are laid out clearly like so many Go stones on a Go board. Indeed, we have to guess at a lot of things about Us and Them that inform our decision-making, but that are likely wrong.

Third and finally, not to be self-promoting but... encourage people to read the Way of Go. The first two suggestions come from the Us Them chapter. There are other suggestions throughout the book, though some are rather subtle, that are directly relevant to the issues at hand.

From my vantage point, I know the situations are dire, but I also know what I don't know. I'm at a disadvantage with regard to information and what the metaphorical board there is like. Advising what to do would be folly. Advising how to approach the problem, however, I feel quite comfortable that a Way of Go, Aikido, Chado, Karatedo, Tae Kwon Do, Zen, or Shodo approach, among scores more, in their true forms, would be the correct approach.

Posted by wayofgo at 03:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 16, 2004

The Nature of Things

Someone asked me about when to attack in Go. The Zen answer is to attack when the fruit falls from the tree. Not to be coy, let's explore the Zen answer.

When you were young, you lost your baby teeth. We'll hope, naturally. When those baby teeth first started to wiggle, you could have tried to pull them right out. Probably a bad idea, unless you like the pain of your teeth pulled. Another approach would be to have them dangle around in your mouth for a few hours by nary a thread. Again, not recommended unless you like playing with vestigal teeth.

The right time always seemed to be a bit before the thready action was going to happen or in the midst of a chew of apple. The point is that you're better off getting the timing right or you'll bleed profusely, experience tremendous pain, or be playing with a tooth that'd rather go.

Attacks are the same way. You can attack as soon as your troops are near the enemy, you can attack when you've done some initial jockeying for position, or you can attack after moving your troops around and around for days in plain view of the opponent. Depending on the circumstances, your probably best not doing any of these. Probably best to hit the timing right and then attack.

How? It's a matter of experience, often luck, and insight. For everything there is a timing. Attacks, teeth, and press releases. You best respect that nature determines the timing, your job is to understand what that nature is.

Posted by wayofgo at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 28, 2004

What is a Way?

The word Way comes from the Chinese word "dao" (Japanese "do") which can simply mean way or path, but in association with other arts like The Way of Tea (Sa-do), The Way of Archery (Kyu-do), or the Way of Calligraphy (Sho-do), it can take on a much deeper meaning -- a meditation, a way of life, or spiritual path.

For the character and more...

The Chinese character for the term dao or do.

Other Ways:
Kyudo - The Way of Archery
Shodo - The Way of Writing
Sado - The Way of Tea
Zen

Thanks to Bob Myers for the alternative Sado, instead of Chado, on the Way of Tea

Posted by wayofgo at 09:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack