And, just for the record, I, and others, have many times listed the benefits of the pause in this forum. Not my fault you don't understand it.
Ah! Isn't that getting perilously close to the "I won't spoon feed you" defense you've been accused of bringing out anytime you're challenged? Wouldn't this thread have been a good place to repeat those "benefits" for the edification of new members or people new to the topic? Why would anyone post, if not to share their ideas with others? Do you prefer your ideas to remain "mysteriously hidden" in other parts of the forum?
Hey Neil. Let me embarrass you a little, OK? It'll do you good, ya know.
Do you realize that I and more than a few other posters very clearly and without doubt know (unless you're making up a persona that doesn't represent who you really are) that you almost always don't know what you're talking about? Strange, isn't it, that somebody could claim to know what's in your head?
We know because anyone who tries hard to actually know what they're talking about, and make a habit of it, has to pass through a paradoxical state: They have to be more interested in what they DON'T KNOW than what they "know." They have to DOUBT THEMSELVES and what they think they know. Then, when they get the idea that they know a thing, they attack it in every possible way, to see if it can be shown to be false (after, of course, seeing that it fits in perfectly with all other things that look true). At the end of all that, they can have a knowledge that their idea is "supportable" to "the best of their knowledge."
So, when people with such habits hear "I don't CARE how it works, I just know it works." or even "I've listed the benefits" (when they haven't made any efforts to suggest a cause for the benefits), it's obvious that the person in question has not ADDRESSED the problems of what it means to "know what he's talking about." And someone who has can just "know" that person doesn't know what they're talking about.
We all feel some sort of "pain" or frustration at having doubts. It seems that people decide on one of two paths to decrease their frustration: 1) Temporarily allowing even MORE DOUBT to creep in, and squarely facing all their shortcomings in the faith that a solvable problem can usually be solved. 2) Find something they can "believe in" and then IGNORING their previous doubts--and pretending they've been resolved. In the everyday things in life, most people choose route #2, and find an "expert" to believe--and leave it at that. It doesn't work too awfully bad sometimes. But they still don't KNOW what they're talking about--they just parrot what somebody else says. If they've chosen the right expert....they could do worse. But then one has to wonder if those people are any better at choosing experts than they are at figuring things out for themselves.
And then there's another nearly infallible rule of the universe: people who don't know what they're talking about are usually, in fact, actually WRONG! It's hard to know exactly why that's true (and, it's also true, very occasionally they're actually RIGHT--in spite of themselves). But I think the reason they're usually wrong is that they pick for their idea something that's nebulous or fantastic--something that's hard to DISPROVE. Heck, nobody can disprove CTE because nobody knows what it is! Those who claim they do know what CTE is ALL insist they "ain't tellin.'"
Ditto, so, i will ask again. What is your level of play??
Well...that question raises a question in MY mind: If I say a level that's higher than yours, will you immediately bow down and say I must be right and you must be wrong (haha, I doubt THAT ONE)? And If I say I can't play as well as you, will you insist that proves I'm wrong in everything I say, and that proves you're right (haha, I think I could bank on that one
)?
Nothing about your past comments has made me think that your own habits of intellectual consistency would prevent you from making a self-serving response to my answer
But, since you ask, and since I would expect to be posting more, I don't mind talking about my own playing history:
I haven't played more than five games of pool in the last thirty-five years. Last month, on a lark, I stopped in a pool-hall and knocked some balls around for half-an-hour. It was pathetic--I felt like a blind man; it was actually a little bit scary! I stopped at the pool-hall because lately I've somewhere gotten the idea that I might like to try to play again (probably from watching matches on youtube, and looking at Dr. Dave videos there, too). btw, at the end of the half-hour I started to get some back! My eyesight is about what it was 35 years ago. I actually think I might start playing again.
My serious play all occurred from 1971-1974. I played mostly 9-ball. Judging by some of the classification schemes and methods I read about lately, I would probably have been somewhere in the solid A- category. My best break and run string in 9-ball was four racks--but I was a LOT more interested in sending the CB around the table as far as possible than settling down into solid positional strategies.
I played in the day when the phrase "tournament player" was always spoken with disdain. I once soundly beat a nationally known, "nicknamed" player, so he had to quit me--but he spotted me the 8-ball, and his main game was 1-pocket. He would never play me again and give me any weight, though.
But I can still feel EVERY ASPECT of the game, hear every clink of the balls, remember EXACTLY what my 20 oz Joss cue felt like--one of the earliest ones Danny Janes ever made after he started up Joss. I sold it 25 years ago.
I loved the game, but, not surprisingly for someone with a LOT of ambition and a lot of varied talents (if I have to say so myself), I finally reckoned that I ought to be doing something else with my life...
Now, with a lot of accomplishment under my belt, a HUGE amount more wisdom and maturity, and many years of consideration on the topic of learning and KNOWING, I wouldn't mind picking up a cue again and seeing just how good I could get.
....So, I've been putting some thought lately into the essentials of pool and how to learn them even better than I had the first time.
Any other questions from you, Neil? Want to compare financial or educational "levels" now?
EDIT: Oh, hehehe, since this is the GetMeThere informational post, I'll add the story of my screen name--since at least two posters have seen fit to draw a psychological assessment of me being imperiously tempestuous. They're right! Once, six or seven years ago, I found myself very eager to join a forum and make some posts. It seemed like I had to go through screen after screen after screen to finish the sign-up, and just before getting to the FINAL sign-up screen I was thinking "JESUS! Just GET ME THERE!"
So, one name being as good as another. I've kept that name ever since.
