Just another reason to hate WSJ if you ask me. They have absolutely no morals, they don't do serious journalism at all.
I am really fascinated by the concept of learning a new thing each month. That sounds like a cool thing to do. But the whole hype they built up, that's a fraud. They said these challenges were "ridiculously difficult" to quote Max himself. Now that's not technically true.
The memorization technique is a technique you can learn to memorize a deck of cards, anyone can do it in a month. But instead of being inspirational and show that anyone could do it, they tried to make it out like this guy was some kind of genius.
Solving a Rubik's cube is hard, first time I tried I had to sit all night before I got it. But then I discovered there's actually a pattern you can learn to "solve it", you just have to read the notations on how to solve it. Anyone who solves it in 20 seconds really have just memorized a pattern, they do not solve it at all. If you sit for 2-4 hours every night repeating the pattern until it goes into your muscle memory you'll be able to solve it in less than 20 seconds too in a month, believe me.
Now I couldn't build a self-driving car, hold a speech about tech in my second language or make a chess algorithm in a month. But then again I don't work with technology for a living. He does. Not saying these things aren't impressive and inspirational, but I am criticizing the way he package it trying to hype it up.
He's just another American with big words. He took a good concept, of learning a new skill and applying dedication in your every day life, and turned it into a gimmickish publicity stunt. When he says these things are ridiculously difficult he's not being frank. And then when he fools WSJ and Magnus Carlsen to be in on it, he's a fraud. Nothing more than a fraud.
Freestyle rapping for 3 minutes especially is nothing special. I could do that easily with a month of preparation. As a matter of fact, I might even be able to do that on the spot.
You should totally make a 3 minute rap video of you dissing Max.
Just went to his website, and I think I might throw up. Best (read: worst) quotes from it:
"I pioneered a new way to learn and play chess (and validated that it has potential), hopefully impacting the future of chess in some capacity."
Wow, I never knew that playing 1 game against a novice was validation. And I mean, it's not like every chess engine in the world uses that method or anything.
"Introducing Max Chess: A style of chess play that uses a combination of intuitive moves and mental algorithmic computation. These mental computations are known as Max Calculations."
Because of course no one on Earth has ever tried using calculation and intuition together before in chess. Certainly not Carlsen, right?
"I do predict that, some time in my life, I will play Magnus in a game and win (most likely using a finely tuned mental chess algorithm)."
Some rich chess player needs to make a 100,000 to 1 bet with Max on this. That should get the point across.
Anyone have Rex Sinquefield’s number?