What real - life situation would you use as an analogy to Go?

Just curious to see some OGS creativity in action!

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Go is a metaphor for life itself. Although we seek to improve our own advantage, we must come to terms with coexisting with forces that oppose us.

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And there are almost* infinite possibilities and choices in front of us, from which we must choose without being able to explore them all in detail.

*: for @ewerb123

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Playing go is a lot like considering what color you want your bedsheets to be.

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Life is a simplified paradigm of Go. ; - )

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I did not expect that! How so?

Oh, I read that many years ago in a book about the game. :wink:
But they did not give an explanation.

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Playing go is a lot like considering what color you want your bedsheets to be.

Seemingly simple, but surprizingly complex issue that never really has a right answer and might enrage your significant other if you spend too much time on it ? :stuck_out_tongue:

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@ Gia: Do pick 3-4 or 4-4? Do you approach this or that corner or tenuki? Which way do you wish to make that supposedly even trade?

I think Gia was wondering about the connection with bedsheet colour, which does not seem similarly plagued with complexity…

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In some situations (especially the opening) even superhuman bots find multiple equally good options, not to mention a weak human amateur. So the choice ultimately comes down to preference.

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I just made some shit up, hoping someone would come up with something interesting. I sure wasn’t expecting the “significant other” angle. Was pretty good.

There’s nothing to add really after the first post. yebellz said what I would have said.

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In my life, whenever I find myself building an empire, it reminds me of Go.

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Last weekend, I was washing dishes and trying to come up with a good metaphor for describing Go to beginners. I’ve tried doing teaching games with a few people who were just starting from scratch, and I found that one of the reasons they had such a hard time wrapping their heads around the game was because it was so different from any of the other games they’d tried.

They would attempt to apply strategies or pattern-making filters they’d learned from other games, and would immediately get into trouble.

So here’s the metaphor I came up with - playing go is like two people having a sea battle with two huge sailing ships that are usually crewed by many sailors, but each of them has to do everything themselves, and they can only do one thing at a time.

This is an apt metaphor because there are a lot of different things one has to pay attention to in order to sail a ship - the direction of the wind, how many sails are up or down at one time, steering the rudder, etc. Also, if you’re in combat with another ship, that means there are all these other things you have to attend to - which way your ships are pointing (parallel or perpendicular), can you shoot at them or not, are you about to crash into them, etc.

So, not only do you have to be able to pay attention to all of this information - not just for yourself, but for all those elements on the other boat - you also have to make moment-by-moment decisions as to which ONE THING would be the best to do in that moment to gain the upper hand.

Do you steer the ship to gain a tactical advantage? Do you run over to the cannons and shoot some chain shot at their sails to slow the other ship down? Do you run over to the back of the boat and put out the fire from the cannon-ball they just shot at you? All of these things are crucial, but you can only do one at a time. And whatever you do to respond will - in some way - shape what the other ship does in response to you.

It’s hard to sum up, but I think that’s the most accurate picture of playing go - you’re on a big pirate ship out at sea fighting another ship, you’ve got 2 ripped sails, and 3 fires, and only 1 bucket of water at a time.

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Also I can’t relate because black or white sheets only is not my thing, I have colorful ones. :woman_shrugging:

So many unknown terms! :smiley:

Always top side of the bed first.

This is a common metaphor though, no extra marks. :slight_smile:

I always have that feeling when faced with menus. :slight_smile:

Please elaborate then :slight_smile:

Maybe if I preferred black and white sheets only, I would have one less complexity in life… Hmmm, that’s a lesson to take from it :slight_smile: