I was something like 7 or 8 when I picked up a cube for the first time. I tried doing it color by color, though after a while I did understand that when I finished a side all the colors had to line up with the center pieces of the adjacent sides. So I figured out how to do one layer, and at one point managed to get two sides solved, but then, of course, couldn't get any further without messing up the progress I'd made.
After a few years that first Rubik's cube got lost (though I found a few pieces of it in an old toy box last year and I'm still wondering what happened to it), and I didn't pick it up again until I started my freshman year at Caltech, when I figured out a very inefficient method to do the first two layers. I finally consulted a website for help on the last layer, though initially I skipped over the part about the middle layer, so I kept using my own method for a while. Which explains why the first timed solves I recorded were on the order of the time it takes me to do a 4x4 now (and I'm still pretty slow at that). I gave my brother a cube for Christmas, and I let him play with it for a while before attempting to teach him a solution. Not only is it more satisfying to see how much you can figure out on your own, it's also easier to learn a solution when you have a slightly better understanding of what's going on and not just applying movesets blindly. Shelley --- In [email protected], "Jasmine Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I first solved the cube when I was 10 years old. I only worked out the > first two layers by myself, then I read a book for the last layer. I'm > quite sure that I would not have been able to work out the last layer by > myself at that age. I'm not saying it isn't possible at that age, just > that I don't think I could have done it! So I'm not too bothered by the > fact that I didn't work it all out on my own. > > This makes me wonderÂ… of the people who did initially work out an entire > solution on their own (regardless of how inefficient it might have > been), how old were you at the time? > > Jasmine > http://speedcuber.blogspot.com > > > On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 02:32:44 -0000, "Stefan Pochmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > said: > > > > --- In [email protected], "kovacic81" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > I didn't think that my 10 year old cousin would figure out the > > cube > > on > > > her own. > > You *thought* so. And now we (and more importantly she) will > > never > > know. I myself am quite sad I'll never know whether I would've > > been > > able to find a solution myself, if I remember correctly I got a > > solution with my first cube when I was about 6 and sadly nobody > > encouraged me to try it on my own first. > > Why waste the opportunity? > > Recently a friend of mine became interested and found a solution > > himself. Took him two months, and it wasn't the most efficient > > method, > > but he did it. He resisted getting any help, I resisted giving > > any > > help. That's what *I* am proud of. But yeah, I know I'm quite > > lonely > > with that attitude. > > Stefan > > -- > http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and > love email again > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/speedsolvingrubikscube/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
