Joseki and Go problems.

This is what I currently think - Joseki are sets of ideal moves. It's basically a combo sequence of play, encompassing best choices for your moves and your opponent's moves. Ideally you want to play a joseki that puts you ahead and gives you initiative, without your opponent realizing that they are playing into the losing side of the joseki pattern. (or maybe they do realize it but they can only play as recommended because it would minimize their losses.)

There was a quote somewhere I saw that said something about "learn your joseki and then forget it." Another one said "learning joseki reduces your playing level by 2 ranks". Both of them refer to the fact that rote learning is bad - you will not learn overall strategy as well, I suppose, and it can make you predictable, for sure. I think that we are just supposed to be able to recognize when joseki is possible instead, and regard it in terms of a strategic advantage instead of playing out the whole thing on a tactical level.

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Do as much as you can with as few actual moves as possible seems to be the order of the day in go.

I've been doing go problems on a website called Go Problems. (what a straightforward name) It looks like they have a lot of material - I'm just looking at the lower level problems at the moment. I like how I can choose what difficulty of problem I want to look at. I also like that there are commentaries on the problems. Also, I can continue playing out the problem past it's ending point in order to see for myself just WHY something is good or not good (because I am a noob). Very helpful, and doesn't cost anything :D

Allen.