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Is go helpful to engineers or other occupation

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Jason

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Jun 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/21/98
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Hi.
I am an engineer and noticed that many of you are either
scientifically inclined or hold high degrees. Since I am beginner in
go, I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial
to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

Thiele Everett

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Jun 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/21/98
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Jason (jaso...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: Hi.

On the contrary, spending lots of time playing go is
probably detrimental to one's career, whatever that may
be. After all, there are only 157 hours in the week.

--Rett


T Mark Hall

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Jun 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/21/98
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In article <6mj9mv$q0q$2...@oden.abc.se>, Thiele Everett <m9...@abc.se>
writes
There are three types of mathematicians - those who can count and those
who can't.
--
T Mark Hall

twitch

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Jun 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/21/98
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Jason wrote:

> Hi.
> I am an engineer and noticed that many of you are either
> scientifically inclined or hold high degrees. Since I am beginner in
> go, I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial
> to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

Well, you know what they say: The amateur go player thinks that go is
a good preparation for life, but the master knows that life is only a
good preparation for go.

So, maybe you should be asking "Will a career in engineering help my go
game?"

As it stands, playing go has improved my chess game, but taken over all
other parts of my life. Oh well... not complaining.

Peace,

Matt


Lieven Marchand

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Jun 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/21/98
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jaso...@worldnet.att.net (Jason) writes:

> Hi.
> I am an engineer and noticed that many of you are either
> scientifically inclined or hold high degrees. Since I am beginner in
> go, I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial
> to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

I think that would be hard to measure. I do notice that at least in the
clubs where I play there is a majority of mathematics/computer science/
engineer types.

--
Lieven Marchand <m...@bewoner.dma.be>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Few people have a talent for constructive laziness. -- Lazarus Long

Louise Bremner

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Jun 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/22/98
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Jason <jaso...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial
> to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

Akkerchally, spending lots of time on go wrecked my original career as
an engineer.

But it's had all sorts of unexpected benefits in my new career as
technical translator....

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com), from grimy Tokyo
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Heikki Levanto

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Jun 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/22/98
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Jason (jaso...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: ... I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial

: to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

Depends what are the alternatives. Where does the Go-playing time come from?
If it is time away from reading technical papers and studying relevant
material, it will have some costs. If is time away from the TV, football,
and beer, it will be much better spent on Go.

It can be argued that you can learn useful skills from Go. Check Bruce
Wilcox' book Ez-Go, there are parallels to politics and management. It can
also be argued that exercising your brain will keep your brain functioning
better. I would say that these fators are both pretty small.

It could also be that Go attracts intelligent (or at least intellectual)
people, and spending time in their company might somehow be beneficial.

Or it could be the other way around, that many successfull people like Go
because success (in some fields, perhaps Engineering) require the same sort
of thinking...

All of this is of course broad generalizations; It is hard to see if any of
them really have any effect, and how much will it be worth. But it may be
worth taking all the same, just for the case...


--
Heikki Levanto LSD - Levanto Software Development <hei...@lsd.ping.dk>


peter zandveld

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Jun 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/22/98
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Of course it is good for your career.

If you state on your resume or curriculum vitea you play go, you have a
chance
of being picked out of the pile as 'interesting'. Most employers of highly
skilled
personel will value people doing something interesting in their spare time.

If you become a somewhat stronger go player and get to understand the
learning
process of go, start understanding what an interlectual battle is, and
start understanding what strategic concepts like *aji* mean, you can apply
it in
your job and 'get stronger' in that too.

Many go players are former chess players. Many claim that by learning go
they
also became stronger chess players.

Go may have wrecked some carreers at first sight, but these were
uninteresting
in many cases anyway. I know nobody who ended in the gutter because of go.


--
Peter Zandveld
Schaak en go winkel het Paard
Specialist shop for Go, chess, bridge.....
Pa...@xs4all.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~paard

Jason <jaso...@worldnet.att.net> schreef in artikel
<6mj1o1$p...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>...


> Hi.
> I am an engineer and noticed that many of you are either
> scientifically inclined or hold high degrees. Since I am beginner in

> go, I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial

Markestijn JBC

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Jun 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/22/98
to

In first place I think it's the other way round: to start playing go
one needs some level of intelligence.....At least if one wants to
understand what he is doing on the board. It might be the case later
on that it is beneficial because a lot of spatial insight is involved in
the game.


Jason (jaso...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: Hi.


: I am an engineer and noticed that many of you are either
: scientifically inclined or hold high degrees. Since I am beginner in
: go, I was wondering whether spending lots of time in go is beneficial
: to one's occupation especially that of engineers.

--
Groetjez,

Jochem


odin maxwell

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
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On 22 Jun 1998 10:29:05 GMT, "peter zandveld" <pa...@xs4all.nl> wrote:

<snip>


>
>Go may have wrecked some carreers at first sight, but these were
>uninteresting
>in many cases anyway. I know nobody who ended in the gutter because of go.

It is certainly a better addiction than some alternatives - I'd guess
heroin use is more harmful than Go! ;-)

I also know that as a recent graduate from law school, I'm _glad_ I
learned the game _after_ I graduated. I would say my risk of failing
out because of a Go obsession would have been pretty high!

---+|||+----+|||+----+|||+----+|||+----+|||+----+|||+---
To hear a native speaker say Japanese Igo terms, see:
http://www.cet.com/~omaxwell/go-pron/go-pron.htm

William Paul Vrotney

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
to

In article <3587D74C.10F1@nospam_erols.com> "Dr. A. S. Lipson"
<werdna@nospam_erols.com> writes:

>
> > If you don't enjoy playing Go, find something else to do. If you
> > want self-improvement, check out the 'I want to get rich too'
> > section of your nearest bookstore. They will be happy to take
> > your money (but it won't be as much fun).
>
> Sorry - that came out rather more abrasively than I intended.
> Go is a great game and I love it, erm, about half of the time.
> It _might_ even do you some good outside of the game itself
> (though I suspect not very much). But I really don't think that
> it would be a good idea to pursue it for any reason other than
> enjoying the game itself.

Apology accepted, but along with being abrasive this advice is just plain
wrong. The GO problem is one of the more interesting and important AI
problems. Also you will find that there are many computer engineers and
scientists where GO is an important part of their culture. And in my case
writing one of the first GO programs back in 1973 actually defined and
advanced my career that has progressed through today because of it.
--

William P. Vrotney - vro...@netcom.com

Richard Smith

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
to

T Mark Hall wrote:
>

> There are three types of mathematicians - those who can count and > those who can't.
>

no no no there are two types
those who can count, those who cant and those who dont care

Richard Smith
I think there are too many opinions in this world

Stephen B Streater

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
to

In article <3587D74C.10F1@nospam_erols.com>, Dr. A. S. Lipson
<URL:mailto:werdna@nospam_erols.com> wrote:

>
> I wrote:
>
> > If you don't enjoy playing Go, find something else to do. If you
> > want self-improvement, check out the 'I want to get rich too'
> > section of your nearest bookstore. They will be happy to take
> > your money (but it won't be as much fun).
>
> Sorry - that came out rather more abrasively than I intended.
> Go is a great game and I love it, erm, about half of the time.
> It _might_ even do you some good outside of the game itself
> (though I suspect not very much). But I really don't think that
> it would be a good idea to pursue it for any reason other than
> enjoying the game itself.

That wouldn't be Andrew Samuel Lipson, would it?

--
Stephen B Streater


Milton N. Bradley

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
to Dr. A. S. Lipson

Dr. Lipson:

I'm not certain about how much good learning/playing Go can do for the
cognitive abilities of mature adults, but I am firmly convinced of its
salutary effects upon children. This is spelled out in great detail in
my web page at

http://www.villagenet.com/~bradleym

Please spend a few minutes to peruse it, and let me know what you think
about my premise and the admittedly anecdotal "evidence" that I present
therein.

Milt

P.S. For what little it's worth, I have 3 degrees in Engineering!

Louise Bremner

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Jun 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/23/98
to

peter zandveld <pa...@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> Go may have wrecked some carreers at first sight, but these were
> uninteresting in many cases anyway.

Oh, my career was interesting enough, but maybe I wasn't particularly
interested in it. (^_^)

Bantari

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Jun 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/24/98
to

I have to admit that I completely disagree with the below
statement. In my oppinion, GO is extremely useful in self improvement
(which is not to say that the same task cannot be accomplished any other
way). Basically, playing GO is a demending mental exercise, which
trains and enhances your ability to think clearly, plan ahead, form
abstract ideas, and increase your ability to concentrate as well
as your mental endurance to stay concentrated for longer periods of time.
Brain is a "muscle" too and it needs exercise as much as your biceps and
your triceps.

Both mental and physical exercise is equally important to a human.
They influence the way you feel about yourself and therefore, your
attitude towards the world outside. People seem to understand this very
well with respect to physical exercise - they're virtually swarming
all the various gyms that i've been to (and they don't go there just to
look) - but they fail to apply the same principle to their mental
'muscle'.

As I said above - mental exercise can be accomplished in many
ways, not just through GO - by playing chess, music, etc. (but not so
much by solving crossword puzzles, hehe).

There are many other advantages of playing GO (like broadening th
horizons and meeting different people), but the question about GO being
helpful to engineers so I concentrated on the 'mental exercise' aspect.

I speak both as an engineer and a GO player, hehe...

In article <3587D74C.10F1@nospam_erols.com>, werdna@nospam_erols.com
says...


|> I wrote:
|>
|> > If you don't enjoy playing Go, find something else to do. If you
|> > want self-improvement, check out the 'I want to get rich too'
|> > section of your nearest bookstore. They will be happy to take
|> > your money (but it won't be as much fun).
|>
|> Sorry - that came out rather more abrasively than I intended.
|> Go is a great game and I love it, erm, about half of the time.
|> It _might_ even do you some good outside of the game itself
|> (though I suspect not very much). But I really don't think that
|> it would be a good idea to pursue it for any reason other than
|> enjoying the game itself.
|>

--
____________________________________________________
- Bantari -
I don't have a solution, but I admire the problem.

Clay Chip Smith

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Jun 26, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/26/98
to

No.
On the other hand,
Engineering is beneficial for GO.

Jason <jaso...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<6mj1o1$p...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>...

wjht

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Jun 26, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/26/98
to
The only similiarity i can identify is that studying both engineering
and go are great for people who like to do the problems at the end of
each chapter.

=)

T Hodges

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Jun 27, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/27/98
to

Go also exercises intuitive capacity as we try to determine the
most important area and the key point. Logic is needed to test
the point that is indicated by intuition.

Tom

In article <MPG.ff9ea455ec831f698968f@news-server>,

Bantari <ban...@mynet.com> wrote:

> I have to admit that I completely disagree with the below
>statement. In my oppinion, GO is extremely useful in self improvement
>(which is not to say that the same task cannot be accomplished any other
>way). Basically, playing GO is a demending mental exercise, which
>trains and enhances your ability to think clearly, plan ahead, form
>abstract ideas, and increase your ability to concentrate as well
>as your mental endurance to stay concentrated for longer periods of time.
>Brain is a "muscle" too and it needs exercise as much as your biceps and
>your triceps.

--
Tom Hodges tho...@freenet.calgary.ab.ca
Professional Agronomist, member Baha'i Faith, Go player

DAVID H LI

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Jun 29, 1998, 3:00:00 AM6/29/98
to

While in college in China (1940s), my roommate was a Weiqi enthusiast.
His major was pre-med. I did not know whether he succeeded in either
pursuits.


Richard Smith

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Jul 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM7/4/98
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well I guess that definitive answer settles the whole question :)

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