4 ms·

I’ve heard this many times, but it’s orthogonal to the point of the essay. If we take the words “know” and “learn” and replace them with “feel,” I can write the

I’ve heard this many times, but it’s orthogonal to the point of the essay. If we take the words “know” and “learn” and replace them with “feel,” I can write the same essay. I felt anxiety because I didn’t have any feeling for the game. Every time I did something, I felt punished for having the wrong feeling, but I didn’t have any feeling, much less a wrong feeling. You can say there are no wrong feelings, yet the game has a winner and a loser and is very much scored like there are right and wrong feelings. My problem then was what it is now: I have no feeling for the game, and there is no feedback loop to help me feel what is going on. Which is not to say that you aren’t wrong about how to approach the game, but my essay isn’t really about not being able to become a good player, it’s about not being able to do anything because I had no “feeling” for what to do.

Jazear 14y ago
I've been there. It's easy for me to ignore the "right and wrong, win or lose" mentality of certain situations, but there are some times when I feel disengaged or nauseous about being in a situation where I am not expected to perform well. The solution, IMO, is to remember that you aren't the feelings in your head. There was a time you would have had a feedback loop for the game regardless of winning or losing, and you've lost touch with it due to age. Your remedy, which is the correct one, is to persevere beyond your banal mental fortress until a new feedback loop is created. By the way, I'm a huge fan of your work. Good job!