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Re: [computer-go] SlugGo vs Many Faces, newest data



> Don, I think you're observations about new ideas giving odd results at
> first, must be due to some psychological factor.  Perhaps you tend to
> remember the suprising results, or perhaps you test a lot of ideas that
> don't lead to improved performance, but quickly dismiss those that don't
> get off to a good start in the tests.

You are of course implying that  I have a gamblers mentality.  I think
you  may not  be a  very good  psychologist :-)  Here is  how I  do my
testing.   Before  I start  a  test I  determine  in  advance what  my
stopping rule is and what result I much achieve to keep a change.  The
stopping rule is usually a fixed number of round robin matches between
2 or more version of the program.   I never stop early unless I find a
bug while testing in which case I restart after fixing.



> ... or perhaps you test a lot of ideas that don't lead to improved
> performance, ...

Why should I be exempt?  This is what engineering is all about.

The secret to this  is to try a lot of things  and then learn from the
failures.   The failures train  your intuition.   My early  ideas were
more naive  and foolish  that my current  ones.  But my  program keeps
improving  and that makes me happy.

- Don

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