1d is a milestone, but so is any other rank. I don’t think there is a significant difference between 2k-1k and 1d in terms of understanding of the game. A 1d just is just slightly better at things that a 1k also knows and understands.
I don’t remember that reaching 1d was ever an important goal for me. I just wanted to become as strong as I could. I was probably aiming higher than 1d (like 4d), but there was never a specific rank at which point I would consider my goal achieved.
1d wasn’t even a real barrier to me. I think 6k was more of a barrier (besides the barrier that I have been stuck on for the past 15 years).
5 Likes
I failed at it, I skipped straight from 1k to 2d 
2 Likes
BSO, only SDK and lower are allowed to comment this thread
My post was about “what does “Dan player” mean…” to people who actually have it as their goal. That was the the whole point of it, actually. 
D is title back to the old days for pros and amateurs both. kyu is not a formal rank, but rather an evaluation point.
To me personally, there were things I thought about would be cool to have, but never achieved, now it is still cool to achieve childhood dreams, if not all of them.
I felt the same, but they keep adding new tsumegos, and also you can do problems a second time, and cancel again after 1 year, so you may want to check again.
FYI, I am #40 on the highscore table, and I know that #2 is an EGF kyu player, so tsumegos may not be enough to bring you to dan level.
1 Like
Perhaps there are not many in these forums who have becoming 1d as their main goal/motivation?
On various platforms I see people asking “I started playing 3 weeks ago an I love this game! My goal is to become 1d in a year. How to do that?”. I think that 99% of those people quit shortly after.
Setting goals like that is not helpful IMO (probably even harmful, because it’s demotivating).
It’s better to set goals like: “I’ll practice tsumego X hours per week”, “I’ll play Y live games per week”, “I’ll participate in Z tournaments in the coming 3 months”.
4 Likes
Still missing my point, but let’s agree to disagree.
FTR, I find those goals worse; they remind me of grinding. Play Y live games per week for what? The goal beyond that number is the actual goal.
2 Likes
I meant to give examples for achievable goals if you want to improve. If you see playing and practicing as grinding, then I suppose that improving is more a dream than a goal.
Or perhaps you don’t even care about improving and you just play for fun? Or you don’t even enjoy playing, but you just want to be part of the go community? That’s all fine ofcourse. Nobody is obliged to try to improve (or to even play).
Surely I’m missing your point. I don’t even know what we are disagreeing about.
2 Likes
Hm, I consider these tools/ means, not actual goals (if someone wants to see them as goals, more power to them of course).
My point is that not even “improving”/ reaching Shodan is (should be) the actual goal. It’s what actually improves for me, the tangible thing that I get (other than the “badge”) that I get out of improving.
For example: During my last games, I seem to have improved. Playing the live games was mostly the way to it, which was both instructive and enjoyable in itself; as in, I really enjoy the game.
Following that, the numerical goal of climbing out of the TPK pool seems to have been achieved as well. Which, I’m not a superior being, I like the pride that comes with that.
But, the actual goal for me was that I noticed a shift, an improvement, in how my brain perceived the whole board. Probably it translates to other things as well, but even if it’s only related to Go, my actual goal isn’t just to reach SDK (not really, higher DDK is fine by me), but to reach the mental capacity an SDK has to see the forest and not just the trees on the board.
This is what I advise each person should seek: what is the deeper meaning of their goal to them. The roadmap is Y games per day, the name is Dan, but the why is the essence.
11 Likes
For me, 1 dan is just an arbitrary number, I already hit “dan” level on some servers and didn’t feel happier than being promoted to some kyu rank on other servers. So I don’t have any particular goals in terms of rank, however I study go because
- I would like to understand the game better. Many moves in pro games are still obscure to me.
- I am too weak to access some competitions (such as the national championship), it would be nice to be able to participate at least once.
BTW I don’t consider ranks on servers to be very reliable. Many games are won or lost by luck/lack of time. Only ranks IRL (EGF, AGA,…) are to be taken seriously.
8 Likes
I can definitely agree to calling playing and practicing means rather than goals.
I think the goal of reaching a better understanding of this game, is a better goal than reaching rank X. Ranks are merely labels. Ranks may be seen as an external confirmation of some overall level of understanding, but ranks also include other aspects than understanding. So if you’re very attached to rank validation of your level of understanding, you can get frustrated from not achieving that rank.
4 Likes
You want to climb 10 ranks, but don’t understand why I want 1 … 
I’m not sure why I was quoted in the discussion above, but I can see from the discussion between gennan and Gia, that some readers may conflate motivation with goals. Also, I’m thinking it may be helpful to give examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; although many readers may know the difference, it is possible that some do not.
Goals are ancillary to motivation. It is possible to be motivated with no goal at all (I enjoy this, therefore I am going to do it), although probably not very common. Extrinsic motivation comes from standards, achievements, and other influences originating outside of oneself. Examples include achieving external standards (Shodan), winning trophies, wanting to win praise from peers, parents, coaches, etc. Intrinsic motivation originates within oneself. Examples include enjoying an activity for its own sake (i.e., because go is beautiful, or because distance running is exhilarating) and wanting to improve (i.e., to gain understanding in go, or to become more fit in running). None of these things is strictly binary, so please, let’s not argue about that.
Goals can be a tool within an intrinsic motivation (I would like to understand go better, therefore I will do X tsumego a day, or read one go book a month, or pick your own example). Goals can also be a manifestation of extrinsic motivation (I want to become Shodan because dans are the cool kids). However a goal like becoming Shodan could also arise from intrinsic motivation, as one benchmark for improvement if strictly motivated by self-satisfaction.
It should be obvious why intrinsic motivation is important to longevity of participation. We who are on the weaker end of the scale must have intrinsic motivation (or be gluttons for punishment) if we are to continue playing go. At the same time, I don’t pretend to be, nor imagine most others are, absolutely pure of spirit. We are all human. I would enjoy being Shodan for egotistical reasons, but I don’t imagine it will ever happen because of my age and my competing interests; so I am satisfied to enjoy the game for itself and to try to understand it better, as time allows.
I write slowly and I see that gennan has already said some of these things in the time it took me to write this. That’s okay, as we both say it in our own way.
12 Likes
How do you know you get better? Rank promotion is the only way.
Surely one can be aware of understanding some aspect of the game better than before, without playing competitively and ranking up?
Similarly, one can be aware of improving ones understanding of some science/math topic, without doing an actual test on that topic and getting a good score.
5 Likes
No, that would be you feel you have improved, you can’t prove it. Like people think they have contributed to a greater humanity by calling others selfish. lol
I watch lots of pro games and feel like my understanding of Go has improved a lot, but we are also talking about actual playing, not watch. It’s like watch EURO 2020. I enjoy watching and my understanding of watching the games may have improved, but I can’t say I am a better player or coach now
Understanding is just one aspect of improvement, which may or may not have an impact on results.
Improvement as proven by competition results consists of many things that are not strongly related to understanding, such as time management, knowledge, emotions, habits, style etcetera.
2 Likes
Those are all part of the games.
When on improves those aspects of ones play and gets better results from it, one should not take that as proof that ones understanding has increased. Increased understanding may not be easy to “prove” to others.
1 Like