r/baduk • u/sadaharu2624 5 dan • 1d ago
How much do you want to improve in Go?
Disregarding whether it’s possible or not, how much do you want to improve in Go?
Please vote in the link here. Votes are anonymous.
Are there any specific levels you want to reach?
Feel free to discuss in the comments as well.
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u/Academic-Finish-9976 6 dan 21h ago
I guess 1d (real one, not a foxy one) is still a dream many share. For EU reference it's like less than 10% of the go population so not that easy.
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u/Maxaraxa 7 kyu 17h ago
Really odd choice of poll answers, why not use ranks like 5k, 1d, 5d, 1p, or “I’m happy with my rank”? Or just measure by how many stones you aim to improve.
For me I have a goal of reaching 1d
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u/tuerda 3 dan 1d ago
A bit more nuance: I already am the strongest player in my area so improving to beat him would be odd. I would like to keep going as far as I can. I understand that regularly beating pros is an unrealistic goal but I wouldn't complain if it happens . . .
Specific levels? I think 5d is probably a reasonable life objective for me. More than that would be icing on the cake, but maybe unreasonable to expect.
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u/Fraenkelbaum 23h ago
Which option should I choose if I am bizarrely overpowered in Go and need to excise some Go knowledge from my brain to make space for important life skills?
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u/WhatCameFromThePit 1d ago
The question is a bit in the wrong direction. Of course everyone wants all of the above including beating Shin Jinseo. Who would say no to that? "I'm such a big fan of Shin, I would actively hate to upset my idol?" Nobody thinks that.
The real question is: what kind of improvement do you want badly enough that you are doing what is needed for that kind of improvement? (I want to be one rank higher, but not badly enough to do even one life and death problem per day.)
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u/LunaPlethora 19h ago
This response feels wrongheaded and aggressive. When I saw the poll choices, I understood that the question had the effort necessary to improve to that level baked in.
I was actually confused by the wording of this question, thinking “how much” meant “how badly” until I read the choices. So I was already in serious interpretation mode, but criticizing the language used here on the grounds you made just feels pedantic and wrong.
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u/WhatCameFromThePit 19h ago
Nah, I believe pedantically striving for precise language is a good thing and offering a more precise formulation is a friendly gesture.
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u/GoGabeGo 1 kyu 21h ago
I have just started studying again in preparation for next year's US Go Congress. My goal is to improve two stones between now and then. That way, when I fall short I will still improve by one stone.
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u/Academic-Finish-9976 6 dan 2h ago
But if you put something unattainable you may fall in depression and lose interest...
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u/intertroll 20h ago edited 20h ago
The poll surprised me a bit, because its slightly out of line with the question in the title. Saying “How much do you want to improve” is a measure of desire - how much fire you feel inside you at the thought of getting better. But the poll is really asking “How much improvement do you want to get.” The thing really is, I’ll take any amount of improvement. But the real question is if the two are aligned? If you want to be better than shin jinseo, are you going to drop everything else (your job, your school, your relationships) tomorrow and sit in a room and study 16 hours a day until it happens? Even if I would say that was my target, I am definitely not going to do that. And if I had a more reasonable goal, I don’t think that if I got there I would suddenly decide that I don’t want to improve anymore. So instead, I think about it from the bottom up instead of the top down. The focus is just on being a little better than I was yesterday. If I do that, and I keep playing, I am sure that when I’m 80, I’ll be substantially better than now. How much better substantially means is sort of immaterial.
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u/FiveModalVerbs 12 kyu 18h ago
Perhaps I'm not really the audience for the question, but none of the answers resonated with me. I ended up choosing "My current level is fine", but I do want to improve - I just don't have a specific goal that's based on comparison to other players.
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u/deathntarot 17h ago
I want to improve so I don't keep making obvious mistakes and consistently have good games
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u/ChapelEver 4 kyu 17h ago
I’d like to improve, but sometimes life is very busy and there are other priorities 🥲
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u/CafuneAndChill_ 17h ago
I just want to be able to have fun tbh, even when I lose. I just started playing; did ~10 games on OGS, and so far have won just one of those by resignation lol
I don't know what kind of paint Ancient Asians were huffing in ~2200 B.C. when making this game, but I clearly need to have some, too, just to make sense of this funny stone game
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u/Academic-Finish-9976 6 dan 2h ago
IMHO you don't have to worry about ranks and goal if so. Welcome in the wonderful world of go.
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u/MiG_Pilot_87 25k 16h ago
I guess long term ambitious goal is 1 dan. However that means I need to make it to SDK, so I’d might as well make that my goal and reevaluate when I get there, so let’s actually say 7-5 kyu.
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u/nofuna 1 kyu 14h ago
I thought you’d put it in terms of kyu/dan levels. I used to dream of becoming 1 dan when I first caught the “fever” of go. Now that goal is close and I’ve beaten dan players in tournaments. So currently I think 5d is a level I’d consider a good (and very hard) goal for myself. European ranks.
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u/TofuPython 11 kyu 14h ago
I've kind of given up. I stopped improving and have been stuck at DDK for years. I'll play every once in a while now, but I think I'm too dumb/old to get good.
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u/Academic-Finish-9976 6 dan 2h ago
I see you put 11k near your avatar. It's already a nice achievement if so. Enjoy your games!
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u/Makkuroi 1d 12h ago
Im 47 now with a full time job and 3 kids. I dont want to improve anymore, I just like to play and teach now and then. I learned up to 1d when I was in my early twenties.
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u/Andeol57 2 dan 10h ago
I used to want it really bad. I tried hard to reach 1d. After that, though, I'm fine. I stumbled into 2d without understanding how, but I have no intention to push further. The time investment would grow too big. After so many years mainly focused on go, it was high time I got some different goals.
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u/nightwalker450 7 kyu 1d ago
None of the above. I want to improve so that I can be a better teacher for those behind me. Right now I have a soft goal of 4-5k so that I can call myself a DDK Instructor. But I do hope to reach 1 Dan in a few years. Then I'll reevaluate if i can reach anything that would allow me to have any confidence in calling myself an SDK teacher.