Let’s consider the audience for a moment:
A young couple at an Asian Festival, a 5th-grade elementary student who got out of class to learn a game, or someone who saw Alphago on Netflix and showed up to a Go club meeting at a local cafe.
These are not Go players, not yet, anyway.
We could discuss all manner of fascinating ideas about the history and origins of our game. For example, consider that Go, Morris, Tic-Tac-Toe, Mancala, and Draughts/Checkers are all games that can be played with nothing more than contrasting river rocks and a board drawn in sand or dirt. These games could easily be much, much older than we have ever imagined. Older than agriculture, older than the stone age, perhaps a hundred thousand years old. But, we will never have a way to prove it because the best archeological evidence you could hope to find would be two piles of stones on the beach or next to a stream.
And while you and I ponder this and debate the issue,
The couple nodded politely and moved on, following the smell of rice cakes. The elementary school student began fighting with his classmate. The Alphago watcher is still smiling, but their smile has become a mask, and whether they know it or not, a decision has been made to seek fun elsewhere.
I want those people to get on a board and have fun playing a game as quickly as humanly possible. The wonderful things the players love about the game have to come later.
And some catnip for you: