Dear J.,
I'm going to make a point about spirituality by analogy with the game of Go.
Go is a simple but complex game where you take turns placing black or white stones on a board while avoiding capture by the other player's stones, and trying at the end of the game to have the most area surrounded or "controlled" by your stones. I've been learning to play it and I am quite bad at it, but one thing that helps me to get better is that when you play on online-go.com, there is so-called AI Analysis that runs after a game and tells you what your biggest mistakes were during the game and what you could have done instead. Not all mistakes are equal--the biggest mistakes are the ones that took you from "probably going to win this game" to "probably going to lose this game" all in one bad move, and learning to recognize what winning and losing look like is part of learning to play the game well. For example, in this screenshot I played my black stone at B4 (labelled "-92" because it turned a 92% chance of winning into a 100% chance of losing), but if I'd played at H4 instead (marked "0") I would have kept that 92% chance of winning. You can see from the "Win %" graph that I had a very brief opportunity there to turn the game around after white's mistake at B3, and I blew it because I didn't even realize I had it.
Even though you can never play perfectly, you can survive making little mistakes because your opponent makes mistakes too, and the AI will help you identify those as well, afterwards, and show you how to exploit them next time.
Sometimes in order to practice, I'll start a game, play through the beginning (even the places where I feel like I don't know where I'm doing) until I'm definitely losing, and then resign and go look at the AI suggestions to see what opportunities I missed: what was the crucial point where I lost the game, and what should I have done instead?
I was pondering today about Q&As, and what questions I would ask Heavenly Father if I got a face-to-face Q&A with him, and the first two questions that came to mind were "How are you doing?" and "How am I doing?". And the thought occurred to me that this was exactly the same kind of question as AI Analysis for Go--asking an expert what was the biggest mistake I made today, so I can learn to recognize it and not do it again! And even though Heavenly Father isn't here in person right now, I think that this is the kind of question (unlike "What are you working on right now?") that can be answered through the Holy Ghost. I can get advice on how to be a better and stronger person, from someone who is a supreme expert on how to live a good life. I will still make mistakes, but the Enemy makes mistakes too, so if I can avoid the biggest mistakes I will have a good day. And when I lose, I can get advice on why I lost, and how to avoid it next time, and have a better day and be a better person.
I am so grateful for repentance and for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Max
I'm going to make a point about spirituality by analogy with the game of Go.
Go is a simple but complex game where you take turns placing black or white stones on a board while avoiding capture by the other player's stones, and trying at the end of the game to have the most area surrounded or "controlled" by your stones. I've been learning to play it and I am quite bad at it, but one thing that helps me to get better is that when you play on online-go.com, there is so-called AI Analysis that runs after a game and tells you what your biggest mistakes were during the game and what you could have done instead. Not all mistakes are equal--the biggest mistakes are the ones that took you from "probably going to win this game" to "probably going to lose this game" all in one bad move, and learning to recognize what winning and losing look like is part of learning to play the game well. For example, in this screenshot I played my black stone at B4 (labelled "-92" because it turned a 92% chance of winning into a 100% chance of losing), but if I'd played at H4 instead (marked "0") I would have kept that 92% chance of winning. You can see from the "Win %" graph that I had a very brief opportunity there to turn the game around after white's mistake at B3, and I blew it because I didn't even realize I had it.
Even though you can never play perfectly, you can survive making little mistakes because your opponent makes mistakes too, and the AI will help you identify those as well, afterwards, and show you how to exploit them next time.
Sometimes in order to practice, I'll start a game, play through the beginning (even the places where I feel like I don't know where I'm doing) until I'm definitely losing, and then resign and go look at the AI suggestions to see what opportunities I missed: what was the crucial point where I lost the game, and what should I have done instead?
I was pondering today about Q&As, and what questions I would ask Heavenly Father if I got a face-to-face Q&A with him, and the first two questions that came to mind were "How are you doing?" and "How am I doing?". And the thought occurred to me that this was exactly the same kind of question as AI Analysis for Go--asking an expert what was the biggest mistake I made today, so I can learn to recognize it and not do it again! And even though Heavenly Father isn't here in person right now, I think that this is the kind of question (unlike "What are you working on right now?") that can be answered through the Holy Ghost. I can get advice on how to be a better and stronger person, from someone who is a supreme expert on how to live a good life. I will still make mistakes, but the Enemy makes mistakes too, so if I can avoid the biggest mistakes I will have a good day. And when I lose, I can get advice on why I lost, and how to avoid it next time, and have a better day and be a better person.
I am so grateful for repentance and for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Max
--
I could not love thee dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
I could not love thee dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
