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Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

nautil.us

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Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#21

Post by justwalt »

person_of_color wrote: post #12
zawerf wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A famous competitive programming prodigy is tourist[1]. You can find his rating graph starting from 2006 on topcoder when he was just 12 years old: https://www.topcoder.com/members/tourist/details/?track=DATA... He's now indisputably the best competitive programmer in the world. But it's comforting to know that he too had to slowly grow over many years starting from a mere mortal 1200 rating. [1] https://en.wikipedia…

What a waste of brain cycles.

Aren’t most things?

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#22

Post by cocochanel »

akjsdnajksdnjk wrote: post #13

I was never able to "get" chess. I know the rules, I can methodically scan every position, but I feel that I can never really think more than one step ahead. I just start feeling restless, get overwhelmed at the board and my processing slows to a crawl. I might look calm and focused on the outside, but inside I'm fidgety and thinking "what the fuck am I looking at? how can I ever think of a larger strategy when I can…

It's more akin to becoming a guitar virtuoso: deliberate practice. You working at FANG has nothing to do with it.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#23

Post by qazpot »

akjsdnajksdnjk wrote: post #13

I was never able to "get" chess. I know the rules, I can methodically scan every position, but I feel that I can never really think more than one step ahead. I just start feeling restless, get overwhelmed at the board and my processing slows to a crawl. I might look calm and focused on the outside, but inside I'm fidgety and thinking "what the fuck am I looking at? how can I ever think of a larger strategy when I can…

> I work at a FANG and am very good at my job, so don't need the validation.

You whole post is about seeking validation.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#24

Post by scoutt »

> As we get older, there is one thing at which we get worse: Being a novice.

Personally, I love being a novice. I intentionally seek it since mid 20 (being ~40 years old now), by learning a new game, mastering a microcontroller or programming language, etc.

I still don't notice a "slow-down" in my learning process... but maybe because learning is a process that I train continuously?

What I do notice is a mechanical-learning slow-down, for example, if I pick a new videogame, it takes a while until I "catch-up" with aiming, or button sequences, etc.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#26

Post by choeger »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #7
mquander wrote: post #4

I have some personal experience that gives me a different perspective. I learned chess when very young (~5) but I failed to be a successful prodigy -- my rating capped out around 1100 USCF. Every few years I would pick the game back up and play a few tournaments, and each time I improved a bit. I love chess, but it's never been anything like the central focus of my life. In my late 20s I moved to California and also…

This is something I've found fairly shocking as a parent of an 8-year-old: the deep commitment on the part of other families to really commit to a specific sport or hobby. I don't know if I just grew up in too small of a rural town to have access to these opportunities (or if they're even healthy). As an example, one of the girls on my daughter's volleyball team is on 3 separate volleyball clubs simultaneously. She p…

Without proper training (i.e., taking care of all the stuff that is not Volleyball but supports you playing it, like back muscles, shoulder mobility and stability, stretching, school), it is certainly not healthy at a certain level/age. Otoh, playing five hours of volleyball alone a week is not that much if the level is not too demanding.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#27

Post by pdm55 »

akjsdnajksdnjk wrote: post #13

I was never able to "get" chess. I know the rules, I can methodically scan every position, but I feel that I can never really think more than one step ahead. I just start feeling restless, get overwhelmed at the board and my processing slows to a crawl. I might look calm and focused on the outside, but inside I'm fidgety and thinking "what the fuck am I looking at? how can I ever think of a larger strategy when I can…

I play regularly on chess.com. (I pay for a membership to avoid ads.) On these online sites, you quickly get matched with players around your skill level. I play 5 min games for the quick thrill. I just stick with the Queen's Gambit with white. There is one key mistake that black sometimes makes in that opening, otherwise, it's on to the middle game hijinks. At my level the opponents tend to favour e4 with white. You need a couple of defences for their key attacks. I usually review the game with the online computer, because you can see better moves you could have made - it's a great way to slowly improve. I'm in my sixties and finally have the time and the tools to enjoy chess.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#28

Post by atupis »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #7
mquander wrote: post #4

I have some personal experience that gives me a different perspective. I learned chess when very young (~5) but I failed to be a successful prodigy -- my rating capped out around 1100 USCF. Every few years I would pick the game back up and play a few tournaments, and each time I improved a bit. I love chess, but it's never been anything like the central focus of my life. In my late 20s I moved to California and also…

This is something I've found fairly shocking as a parent of an 8-year-old: the deep commitment on the part of other families to really commit to a specific sport or hobby. I don't know if I just grew up in too small of a rural town to have access to these opportunities (or if they're even healthy). As an example, one of the girls on my daughter's volleyball team is on 3 separate volleyball clubs simultaneously. She p…

There was pretty good econtalk about this topic http://www.econtalk.org/david-epstein-on-mastery-specializat... . But generally there are these sports with very narrow skills like chess which you has to specialize very early. Then there is these sports with very width skills like soccer where generally get best outcomes when you specialize rather late like 16 year old.

Re: Learning Chess at 40 (2016)

#30

Post by WalterBright »

I can't say I understand devoting such time to learning a completely useless, extremely narrow, skill. Learning mathematics is useful. Learning to play a guitar is useful. Learning to program is useful.

I came to this conclusion in college. It was hard enough learning math, thermo, physics, etc., and seemed a complete waste of time to get better at chess. The former consumed my mental energies.

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