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Our Chess Champion Has a Home

nytimes.com

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Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#51

Post by aaron695 »

cyberferret wrote: post #10

The takeaway from this story for me is the amazing loyalty of the family. To turn down scholarships at other 'better' schools and stick with the one that gave Tani free membership to the chess club and where the teacher that taught him how to play works. Plus the fact that they are donating the entire GoFundMe (which I donated a tiny amount to last week) to helping other kids from Africa to migrate to the US. That is…

> To turn down scholarships at other 'better' schools and stick with the one that gave Tani free membership to the chess club and where the teacher that taught him how to play works.

Reminds me of this joke (I'm sure there's better renditions)

https://truthbook.com/stories/funny-god/the-drowning-man

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#52

Post by newen »

m0zg wrote: post #28
Dangeranger wrote: post #23

Tani’s family has an apartment, near his current school, paid for one year by an anonymous donor. They will be donating 10% of the GoFundMe to their church and the remaining 90% will become a trust to help African migrants seeking asylum in the United States. While Tani has been offered scholarships by several elite private schools in NYC, his family has decided to stay loyal to the school Tani is currently attending…

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

Learning how to use chess engines and making use of them for training is actually a huge tool for chess players.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#53

Post by newen »

uptownfunk wrote: post #45

The real tragedy, in all of this, is the feeling of compulsion that these economically disadvantaged kids face to use their intellect to improve their financial situation. There was a kid in my statistical theory class who blew my mind with his raw brain power. Came from Nigeria, could have easily pursued a PhD from a top program. Perhaps gone on to do some great research. Where did he end up..? An actuary. Why? The…

On the other hand, his kids might have a better chance at using their gifts better. Not that failing a PhD program will put you in a bad place economically (I'd say it will put you in a worse place though) but having a stable job and enjoying other aspects of life is good too.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#55

Post by rjf72 »

m0zg wrote: post #28
Dangeranger wrote: post #23

Tani’s family has an apartment, near his current school, paid for one year by an anonymous donor. They will be donating 10% of the GoFundMe to their church and the remaining 90% will become a trust to help African migrants seeking asylum in the United States. While Tani has been offered scholarships by several elite private schools in NYC, his family has decided to stay loyal to the school Tani is currently attending…

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

It's unbelievable this is getting downvoted, because it's 100% true and a very major problem in society. I've taught lots of young players and success or failure has 0 to do with intelligence. It's a matter of who can stay focused and actually do the work it takes to improve (which at that age/level is tactics tactics tactics). The second they "discover" social media or the endless stream or inanity on e.g. YouTube, it's game over.

It's a big part of the reason I stopped teaching. It's so disappointing to see somebody make such rapid progress, start getting distracted by digital entertainment including social media, and then see all their potential (alongside extensive wasted effort on my part) just flushed down the toilet.

---

A sharp but, in my opinion, very related tangent is the Flynn Effect [1]. It was the observation that IQs were increasing over time. IQ tests are always normalized such that the mean is 100 with a standard deviation of about 15. However, Flynn observed that the absolute score of a 100 in e.g. 1950 was higher than it was in 1920 and similarly on forward. Until the 1990s.

Sometime in the 1990s this all changed. In numerous developed nations the Flynn Effect has reversed. Now, for the first time ever, a 100 IQ score would be less today than in e.g. 1985 in many developed nations. And the declines have been quite dramatic reducing on the order of 1-2 points per decade. Keep in mind that 1/15 = 0.07. Somebody who is at the average of 100 would be ahead of about 50% of people. Reduce that by just 1 point he's dropped 0.07 sigmas and is now only ahead of 47% of people. And that's a population level event recurring each and every decade!

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#56

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

gowld wrote: post #34
sandov wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... Or he will learn to code and become the next Dijkstra.

One of Dijkstra's complaints was that American computer scientists, with all their wealth and non-WWII-bombed cities (vs Europeans) , spent too much time and money playing with computers instead of doing computer science.

That play time seems to have been more valuable than what the defunct European computer industry focused its energies on.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#57

Post by rjf72 »

Invictus0 wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

Don't write this about your kid man. We all wasted our time as teenagers, it's part of growing up.

I wouldn't equate all wastes. Most forms of play have some derivative benefits. Social media and trash content on YouTube seems to have no benefit whatsoever. Of course we had TV whereupon the same critique of unbeneficial waste applies, but I think one big difference is that it became boring quickly. By contrast things such as social media and YouTube provide practically endless entertainment.

Even video games have lost their benefit. When 'we' were younger, games tended to be difficult which instilled perseverance and required the development of skill. That or you got frustrated and went and did something else. Now games, and by this I mostly mean AAA type stuff, have become far more passive forms of entertainment with most of all challenge removed.

This feels like a 'back in my day' rant, but one major difference is that there is quantifiable data to indicate ongoing negative changes in society such, as mentioned in a peer post, the contemporary reversal of the Flynn Effect. [1]

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#58

Post by nostrademons »

Invictus0 wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Maybe a computer”. Whereupon, sadly, he will discover social media, and all his progress will come to a screeching halt due to FANG PhDs gaming his dopamine cycles for a buck. I wish I was wrong, but looking at my 15 year old, I'm not hopeful. He used to be pretty good at chess, too, before he started spending all his time watching bullshit on Youtube.

Don't write this about your kid man. We all wasted our time as teenagers, it's part of growing up.

I mean, I wasted hundreds of hours playing online games as a middle-schooler. Got so addicted that I decided I wanted to learn to make one, so I taught myself C, then C++, then Java when it came out. One thing led to another, I got a few internships, then a job, a CS major, another job, and 15 years later I was one of those Google engineers gaming dopamine cycles for a buck. And the cycle completes!

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#59

Post by UncleMeat »

syntaxing wrote: post #2

Say what you want about our country's current state but stories like this is what makes America great (minus the fact the kid and his family was homeless to begin with). It's not who you know but your talent (and some luck) that get's you recognized and can change your life. Sure, this sounds naive and a lot times, this doesn't play out. But these stories are still aspiring and reminds me of the American dream we onc…

But what of the second best chess player in his position? What if he doesn't become famous? This "gofundme" model of social welfare is terrible. A few people get coverage and have their prayers answered. Everybody else starves. That's not sustainable.

Re: Our Chess Champion Has a Home

#60

Post by hmcm55 »

blizkreeg wrote: post #54

It's interesting to me how no one knows or is talking about the kid who lost to the champ. He is perhaps equally good but lost in this game.

it's because the feat of winning K-3 NY State isn't that impressive. It's all the things he had to overcome/persevere through to get to that moment. The top players in the country that are his age are 2000+.
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