An additional benefit to playing go, especially on an online server that shows a detailed plot of your rank (as KGS does, for example), is that you can use it as a proxy for brain function when you are doing self-experimentation. I mean, it’s rather more fun to play go than to time yourself solving simple arithmetic problems (Seth Roberts’ method for measuring mental performance). For example, I noticed a marked increase in performance after I started standing up for most of my workday. More obviously, I lost a stone during a time when I was exhausting myself by working 7 days a week.
Another point for me is that what is happening on the board isn’t the only thing one can use to train oneself. I rarely run out of time playing go; on the other hand I have been known to lose the occasional game because I got caught up in the action and forgot to stop and consider the whole-board position carefully enough, not because I wasn’t thinking strategically, but because I was playing on momentum. Properly pacing oneself, and mastering one’s adrenaline response, are also things one can practice at the goban.
ps. I am 4 kyu on KGS if others are still looking for fellow Lesswrongers to play with.
An additional benefit to playing go, especially on an online server that shows a detailed plot of your rank (as KGS does, for example), is that you can use it as a proxy for brain function when you are doing self-experimentation. I mean, it’s rather more fun to play go than to time yourself solving simple arithmetic problems (Seth Roberts’ method for measuring mental performance). For example, I noticed a marked increase in performance after I started standing up for most of my workday. More obviously, I lost a stone during a time when I was exhausting myself by working 7 days a week.
Another point for me is that what is happening on the board isn’t the only thing one can use to train oneself. I rarely run out of time playing go; on the other hand I have been known to lose the occasional game because I got caught up in the action and forgot to stop and consider the whole-board position carefully enough, not because I wasn’t thinking strategically, but because I was playing on momentum. Properly pacing oneself, and mastering one’s adrenaline response, are also things one can practice at the goban.
ps. I am 4 kyu on KGS if others are still looking for fellow Lesswrongers to play with.