John Fairbairn has mentioned before that the bias towards computer and numbers guys in the western go community might have unintended bad consequences.
An unpopular opinion I have is that go in the west is promoted in a blatantly discriminatory and sexist and ableist manner, even though the people involved are innocent.
Let’s say 20% of the western population are computer nerds. If the go population in the west is full of computer nerds, short term growth is actually detrimental to long term growth, as the bigger an exclusive group is, the harder it is to change, so that means after rapid growth there’d be instant and eternal stagnation since the maximum amount of people in the west who will ever be into go would be at 20%. This means I am against growing go in the west unless it’s specifically for groups that are underrepresented in the western go population, and also neuroatypical people and those with special needs.
Now that European go is at a low level, now is the perfect chance to prioritise making female go stronger since the objective level women in the west have to compete against to be equal to their peers is easier to reach. in addition, promoting women’s go promotes youth go for obvious reasons, which is the best way to make western go stronger long term. This is how Korea got strong.
But nooo, subsciously sexist higher ups refuse even the most obvious ways to improve go in the west if it involves making women the most important aspect, because we can only see women as a group that needs to be helped rather than a positive contributor to go overall.