Malweth’s Metablog

Two books have taught me the secret behind Self Motivation and Getting Stronger (or Better At) anything. The Sixty-Second Motivator helped me understand how motivation works (in general), and Body For Life is helping me develop a strength training and exercise routine. Interestingly, one of the things that helped me develop this simple thought was a criticism of the Body for Life program: some people find it too inflexible.

I’m positive that the following will sound obvious and stupidly easy, but I haven’t had past success in developing a routine for something I’m interested in. This is also something that I’d like to apply to the Game of Go in order to become a stronger player.

The Sixty-Second Motivator tells us that Motivation is increased through an increase in knowledge or an increase in importance. “Knowledge” threw me until I started matching that up with Body for Life. Sixty describes knowledge as an understanding of why we should change our routine. This is certainly important, but a better match-up with Body would describe knowledge as using time more efficiently through good planning. Importance fits in better with my simple epiphany:

Motivation:

• Increase Importance
• Increase Knowledge

Time Commit:

• Create an Inflexible Daily/Weekly Schedule.
• The more inflexible your schedule is, the more Importance you’re giving the change.

Time Optimize:

• Plan out your activities for each session.
• The better planned your schedule is, the more Knowledge you have, and the more likely you’ll be to follow through with your plans.

A member of GoDiscussions.com sold some of his duplicate books, and he sold me three out of print books I’ve been looking for. This is going to be an amazing boost to my game!

“Kato’s Attack & Kill” focuses on attacking moves, how to attack, when to attack, and how to stage an attack (how to when to attack?). This is one of the best middle game books out there and I believe it’s only out of print because it’s Ishi Press (older Go Bookseller that went under in the 90s). Best of all, the final chapter contains kyu level commentaries of 8 of “Killer Kato’s” games!

“The Breakthrough to Shodan” is another high level book printed by Ishi Press a number of years ago. I’m expecting as good or better from this book as from Kato’s! Breakthrough has 8 chapters, each with around 10 “strides” to shodan. It’s the book on strong fundamentals. The strides translate well into proverbs, but have some significance in real play. Although it’s based on handicap games (4 stones and stronger), handicap really doesn’t come into it too much.

“Beyond Forcing Moves,” another Ishi Press book, focuses on which forcing moves to play and which to hold in reserve, as well as defending against your opponent forcing against your own weaknesses. This book is the most specific of the three, but deals with sente (initiative) - one of the most important concepts in Go.

I’m going to start working on getting in shape this weekend… I think I’ve come up with a good rewards and motivation system:

Points are awarded for various activities, events, etc. Points can be cashed in for rewards.

Points are earned in the following ways (and you have a low-cap of -500 points):

• Target Daily Calories rounded UP to the nearest 100 (example, 1800)
• +10 points for every 100 calories under the target (maximum 30 earned points)
• -10 points for every 100 calories over the target (minimum 100 lost points)
• -100 points for Not Keeping Track
• Working out
• Effort Levels have time factors:
• Hard workout (Muscle pain on the following day, target heart rate, sweat)
  1.5 times the actual time spent (+50%)
  Example: Running, hard elliptical workout
• Moderate workout (sweating, heartrate up)
  1 times the actual time spent (0%)
  Example: Yardwork, light elliptical, actively playing with dog
• Light workout (no sweat)
  0.5 times the actual time spent (-50%)
  Example: Walking, light Qigong, light Taiji
• Time spent equals points earned (after factor):
• -15 points for <30 minutes of daily activity
• +15 points for 30-90 of daily activity
• +30 points for >90 minutes of daily activity
• Weekly Weigh-in
• If losing weight:
• -80 points, gain > 2 lbs
• -40 points, gain 1-2 lbs
• 0 points, 1/2 lb gain to 1/2 lb loss
  (note that half pound changes cumulate, so a 1 lb gain over 2 weeks
  results in -10 points)
• +40 points, lose 1-2 lbs
• +80 points, lose > 2 lbs
• If Maintaining (with losses acceptable) the above chart shifts up and all gains cumulate

This means that a maximum week results in 30 x 7 + 30 x 7 + 80 = 500

Getting 500 points in any given week will be next to impossible! I’d figure on a good weekly goal of around 200 points. Rewards are described below:

• Food Rewards
• -100 points, Uncounted Dessert (2 scoops ice cream or equivalent)
• -250 points, Uncounted Large Dessert (Restaurant portion)
• -750 points, Uncounted 3-Course Restaurant Meal
• -1500 points, Uncounted Holiday
• Gift Rewards
• -500 points, $10 “giftcard”
• -2000 points, $50 “giftcard”
• -10000 points, $500 “giftcard”