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Subject: Re: 12th WCCC, Bar-Ilan University: why not to go.

Author: Johan de Koning

Date: 23:39:21 12/13/03

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On December 12, 2003 at 01:53:04, Matthew Hull wrote:

>On December 12, 2003 at 01:40:25, Johan de Koning wrote:
>
>>On December 10, 2003 at 10:36:44, Matthew Hull wrote:
>>
>>>On December 10, 2003 at 02:46:34, Johan de Koning wrote:
>>
>>>>c) lots of wasted time and I loved every minute of it.
>>>
>>>Is this the European way or just the ICGA way?
>>
>>My point was that the WCCC is an event.
>>An event by & for humans, not by & for computers.
>>Barking madness, as you call it, is part of the event.
>>Technicalities (organizational and electrical) are part of the event.
>>They can be discussed, but still they are technicalities.
>>
>>Humans are pretty smart (even the ones that fail to agree with me :-).
>>They can easily survive and multiply with only 1 hour "work" per day.
>>The rest of their lives is about wasting time (aka money) in an
>>enjoyable manner. Creating a chess program is enjoyable. Pitting it
>>against others is enjoyable, and even if it isn't, learning why not
>>is enjoyable. Going to the movies is enjoyable. And finally, joining
>>the WCCC *can* be enjoyable.
>>
>>However, optimizing an event like the WCCC for time is like compressing
>>LotR for a 22' time slot: an interesting challenge, but a completely
>>different thing. And while I'm with the analogy, [snipped more blah].
>>
>>... Johan
>
>I completely grok what you are saying.  However, the happy medium between a
>leisurely event and an efficient, cost-effective event must be balanced
>according to the needs of the _World's_ participants

The _World_ is not going to help your side of the argument. :-)

> with the primary goal of
>the event in view.

If you don't mind me repeating: there is no primary goal.
The event can be experienced on many different levels, by many
people. The WCCC cross table might be the primary *motivation*
for a handful of contenders. But a 5-round 2-day event would
challenge the motivation of the other 100 persons, and probably
even of the contenders.

>  Instead, it seems to us that they are balanced by only
>considering the needs of Europeans (and relatively near nieghbors) who have
>loads of liesure time to burn.

Well, of course there is the optimal balance, as a function of the
expected (or desired!) crowd. Even Europens would be freaked out by
a 4-week event. :-) But considering the actual event days are only
half of the time wasted, 9 days is fair, 7 days is more fair, and 3
days is not fair. Remember that to "us" it seems that USans typically
waste 50 weeks at the office, rendering the complaints about a few
too many days of quality time a bit silly. :-)

... Johan



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