What is Joseki?

Joseki.

So complicated, yet so simple.

From what I can see, it may appear that josekis are just a label for something that gives fairly even results. But it's professional players who invent them during games.

I mean, invent them during games? Sure, they may have studied it offboard, but to apply and find different variations on the board? Difficult! So many different possiblities, so little time to consider all.

From what I can see...Josekis are often determined by:

1. How much territory for each side?
2. How much influence each side exerts?
3. How settled both groups are?

In order to get optimal results for above..

1. Strong reading skills
2. Strong tesuji skills
3. Very aware of what is going on in terms of global planning, global impact while having a good local results.

Looking at above. All of them seem so subjective, yet so objective. Makes me really wonder what kind of tools that professional players are using to be able to find nice josekis. Furthermore, it also makes me wonder if there is really no josekis, but rather, a series of carefully-planned out moves that requires deep reading. No wonder professional players made sure that they could keep it simple, or could make it complicated as possible.

So...it's entirely possible that professionals understand the shape so well that josekis is almost instinctive to them to the point that josekis doesn't exactly exist, but rather, as a common pattern on goban?

So much to think about...So much to consider.