Actually, his example was very relevant in this regard. Chess has a limited set of rules, once learned all that remains is practicing and letting it to sink in ...for those who are slow at that. To develop poetry is not about the rules themselves as it is about the subjective appreciation of your readership. That skill is not that technical and may take years to hone it right.

>Chess has a limited set of rules, once learned all that remains is practicing and letting it to sink in //

I learnt recently that Chess computers/programs are pre-seeded with standard moves and apparently do very badly if they're set to play without using the traditional openings. This seems to move against your analysis of what is needed to play chess well. Study of stock openings also appears to be required to perform well.

This is not really true any more. Computers will still play at a superhuman level if you disable the opening book.

OK, I was corrected in the other direction recently - do you have a citation handy?

Learned this the hard way. I spend a lot of hours learning stuff in a bad way—I end up not mastering anything!

Me too.