Rubik´s Cube (II)
Last week I laid out my past and present experience with the Rubik´s cube and this week I want to explain to myself how knowing how to solve this simple yet complex puzzle has changed me and the things I wish I knew earlier.
Of course, I will also write about what I still want to learn in the future. Honestly, at first, I thought I will learn 3x3 and nothing more but now I just can´t stop myself from choosing to learn more when I have the choice between learning more methods and just being happy with the knowledge I already obtained.
How Rubik´s cubing changed me
I believe that knowing how to solve the Rubik’s cube has changed me and my way of thinking. For instance, I became a bit cocky when it came to the Rubik’s cube even though I am nowhere close to the world record. It is a way to prove to myself I am still capable of something during the times I feel worthless.
However, personality changes are insignificant in comparison to mental changes. First, obsessions. They tend to take up a lot of mental capacity hence I have a tendency to think of the Rubik’s cube when my mind wanders in that direction. Most of the time, I think of something else but the Rubik´s cube is one of many topics I could think about.
Destructive habits aside. Second, thinking habits and solving skills. I am not sure if the puzzle changed my thinking patterns in any way because that thing is hard to track. I am sure my thinking patterns have changed since I picked up the puzzle but I am not sure of the extent. Let me explain.
Just like Sudoku, the Rubik´s cube changed the way I approach puzzles. In the case of Sudoku, for instance, eliminating possibilities speeds up the solving process but one needs to know how to eliminate, where to look and what to look out for.
However, after a lot of thinking, I can´t seem to be able to figure out how exactly the Rubik´s cube helped my puzzle-solving skills because it is mostly algorithms and knowing when to use them. It feels more like a memorized effort more than anything. At least for me.
The third change, view of the world. One change, I can pin down is the way the Rubik´s cube has changed my general approach to problems. Not puzzle specifically but just world. Those “lessons learned” from the cube can also be learned from other aspects of life.
 Photo by Andre William
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 Another lesson is what the cube visually represents. At the start, the cube is messed up but if you take time to solve it, you will look back one day and wonder why you were struggling in the first place. You have to mess up to be able to succeed. Mistakes and struggles are just part of the process. I have learnt that on the way to solving the cube, one has to mess up the cube. The mess looks intimidating and bad but if you know what you are doing, you will also know that that mess is only temporary.  Photo by Rostislav
Uzunov (Pexels) |
From the Rubik´s cube, solving algorithms stems another lesson I took away. No matter how different the problems you face may seem, the solutions are similar. Maybe you have to think outside of the box but the essence of the problem is the same. The previous problem didn’t stop me, why should this problem?
Before anyone asks, no I am not a motivational speaker since I will be the worst for it. I know I just wrote a couple of cheesy motivational quotes but those are just the ways learning how to solve this infamous (correction: world-famous) cube has taught me. I was not trying to be motivational.
What I wish I knew sooner
In the realm of the Rubik´s cube, there are tons of methods to significantly cut the solving time, since every second count in the fast world of speedcubing. There is this method call the CFOP method (Fridrich method), which most speedcubers use.
I wish I knew the existence of that method earlier since if I did I would not need to learn the standard solving version and then go on to learn the CFOP method later on. I guess the layer-by-layer solving method just gave me a false sense of accomplishment since once I uncovered the secret world of speedcubing I found out that I still have so much more to learn and re-learn.
Another thing I wish I knew sooner were the small trivialities, which would cut my time significantly. For instance, the correct Rubik´s cube holding position, no turning the cube rule, small tricks to turn the cube faster, etc… I wish I learned how to solve the cube in the most efficient way.
The last thing I wish I knew sooner is that practice makes perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I already knew that practice makes perfect but in the case of learning how to solve the cube, I wish I knew that sooner since I thought just performing those algorithms from the top of my head would make me a good speedcuber.
Turns out, I could not be more wrong. To become the best of the best, one needs to have the best of the best (since let´s face it, a standard hard-to-turn Rubik´s cube is not doing anyone a favour in the speedcubing contest) and practice a lot with the fastest tried-and-tested methods. There is nothing more to it. (At least in my opinion).
Room for Improvement
In the past, I have taught myself a lot. The Rubik´s cube is just one of the prime examples, which did not end up in complete failure. Trust me when I say I tried and haphazardly failed a lot of things but that just taught me that that thing is not my thing. Therefore, technically I did not fail. I digress.
By being self-taught, I did not get the “proper education”. (If that is a good thing or a bad thing is a topic for another day.) In other words, I made some mistakes and some aspects of my solving progress have room for improvement. I just wanted to lay it out for myself, if that is of no interest to you, you may skip ahead.
There is always room for improvement since no one is perfect after all. Being self-taught, the room for improvement is a pit of untouched potential or a pit of vipers, depending on how well one has taught oneself. In this part, I just wanted to explain to myself what I believe I am doing wrong and what steps I could take to make it better or change my current habit for the better.
First things first, positioning. During my timed solves, I found my fingers always being in each other´s way, tripping over each other. This discoordination just slows me down significantly and that is just annoying if you have your eyes set on breaking your own record.
I did notice whenever I am not timing myself, my fingers don’t end up intertwined, which means the stress and pressure to break a record is messing up the whole coordination I have been trying so hard to turn into muscle memory.
To solve this coordination problem, I just have to figure out a way to deal with the stress to break that record, which has been sitting there for four months. Maybe I could also look up how to position my hands correctly; since I have a feeling, I am doing it wrong.
The other flaw I like to point out is how oblivious I am when solving. It is algorithm after algorithm. Nothing more, nothing less. This makes me less attentive. When I am just following algorithms, I won´t pay attention since I know how it is done.
This is a major flaw. If I were to pay attention to the patterns and their reoccurrences, I would probably save myself a few seconds. I won´t need to turn a side again since I know that the algorithms that follow will need that side unturned.
Solution: Pay attention. It may seem boring and repetitive but it could save some time and in the speedcubing world, every second matter. A plus would be that I would not be annoyed with myself if I don’t have to un-turn a turned side.
Another problem with the oblivious when solving is that one cannot solve the cube when one slows down. I just noticed whenever I am trying to single-handedly solve the cube or explain an algorithm to someone or in other words slow down my solving speed, I will run into problems with knowing the algorithm I need.
The practice with the algorithm and the intention to break personal records, the movements and the turns one will need to perform become muscle memory. This is intentional but if one wants to slow it down, the problems begin.
Last but not least, pattern recognition. From the hundreds (if not thousands) of solving attempts I had; I did notice some patterns and I know that there are algorithms to solve that pattern quicker. The problem is I don’t know the algorithm off the top of my head.
The solution is simple. Spend more time to learn more algorithms. The more algorithms I know, the faster I will be. Practice those algorithms constantly and use them just as constantly. To finally beat that forty seconds, which has been bugging me for four months.
The future
It is unlikely that I would give up cubing anytime soon, since why should I? However, I do have my eyes set on breaking (not the world record but) my personal record again. Maybe I will finally get close to my ten-second goal some when in the near future.
Of course, I also have my eyes set on the 6x6 cube. Tackled 2x2,3x3,4x4 and 5x5, I believe it is high time to take on a new challenge. However, I would only want to go up to the 7x7 cube since beyond that I don’t believe I would manage.
After tackling 7x7, I would want to try the differently shaped Rubik´s cube. (Technically, not Rubik´s cube, since… it is not a cube. Does the term Rubik´s pyramid even exist? I digress.) I want to try and solve every variation since the shape just looks so cool.
Obviously, I would also want to try to solve the Rubik´s cube blindfolded but since I already have a long list of things, I want to try I would need to prioritize. If I would have to make a list then it would go a little like this…
- Learn more algorithms to solve the cube faster
- Learn how to solve the 6x6 cube
- Learn how to solve the 3x3 cube blindfolded
- Learn how to solve the 7x7 cube
- Learn how to solve the other not-cubes
Until I have learned something new, I believe these are currently the only articles I have planned to write about the Rubik´s cube. Maybe I will write something about self-taught skills in the future but I will see which topic inspires me to write an article.
Suggestion
If there is still anyone out there willing to try the Rubik´s cube, I would suggest just learning it. It is a fun pastime, a great show off skill and maybe even your new obsession. You will learn a lot along the way and maybe even become the next competitive speedcuber.
If you doubt yourself and believe that you will just mess the cube up more than it already is… then I can only say that you are not the only one who believed that. I started comparing myself to others and believing I will mess up the cube more instead of solving it.
However, that got me nowhere and now I can solve the cube in my sleep (metaphorically speaking of course) amongst other skills I have gained on my Rubik´s cubing journey. My suggestion is to just go for it. Besides, everyone starts somewhere.
Full disclosure: I did not use the video below when I learnt how to solve the cube since it was not published back then. This video can be the starting point for your very own Rubik´s cube journey. There are also tons of other how-to videos online. Watching multiple videos helped me to gain a better understanding. That is just a small tip I would recommend.
For any speedcubers out there who do not need to learn how to solve the Rubik´s cube but instead have their eyes set on a different and bigger goal (for instance break the world record of 3.47 seconds) then I have the video I would suggest for you.