A Baduk Blog

Baduk Retreat Centers

(aka places without internet)

Go managed to exist and spread for thousands of years because it was an excellent game to pass the time. Now that people have the internet, they have access to near infinite knowledge at their fingertips.

It is human nature for people to seek to engage their brains. It is also in our nature to be as efficient (aka lazy) as possible. Any Go player will tell you that the game does engage the brain in a firework show of activity. But unlike a YouTube video which can be passively streamed into our eyes, Go requires that we put forth a lot of mental effort.

This isn't going to change any time soon. And so, the question can't be “how do we make playing Go more easy/passive?” But rather, “how do we find an environment where Go will flourish?”

And so it follows that retreat centers, rural homesteads, and isolated communities become the perfect place for Go to flourish. The game would still have to compete against books as a form of “passive entertainment,” but books are a lot different than YouTube.