Finding Your Inner Fast Eddy. If Paul Newman's character had had one of these shot analyzers in The Hustler, maybe it wouldn't have taken so long to beat Minnesota Fats.

Wow talk about taking the romance out alright?  I know in my rational mind that computers are here to help us and this is apparently one of those situations, but having gained the pool skill I have in crowded dark rooms with money on the line, I just naturally recoil at something like this. 

It seems to me that this is a device that illustrates the heart of the American society's need to have everything and have it right now.  If a training device like this "lays" out the angles for you on the pool table, it seems to make the game too easy.  Sure, you have to be able to pull off the shot but still. . . .

Part of learning pool or anything for that matter, is allowing your creativity to direct your play, trying new things, going for "impossible" shots, etc.  If you rely on a computer to tell you the shot with the highest probability of success, I think you miss out on some of the most subtle and satisfactory aspects of the game. 

It is true that computers can now beat the best players in chess but a computer isn't going to be making the shots on a pool table.  No computer will ever be able to take a rank amatuer and beat a top level pro at pool because the amatuer won't know of things like English or cue control.  Same thing in poker, it's a human game.  Chess can be won by brute force.  These games have too many subtle aspects for the analogy to run true.