Why did we even start in the beginning?

Garf

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I was thinking about life the other day when I realized: Why is speedcubing the way it is now? What got people so invested in this puzzle that they were willing to try to solve it as fast as possible? And why just this puzzle, not riddles, wooden puzzles, etc?
This thread will get your thoughts on why the Rubik's Cube and other twisty puzzles are the most incredible, yet exciting and addictive puzzles.
btw this thread could become a book later with all the ideas that pop up.
 
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I think it's because they want to show how fast and plan ahead the puzzles, nonriddles and wooden puzzles are stuff you can remember you can't practice or use to show skill. Why the cube may become addicting because it looks so simple but in the eyes of a regular person it's complex. Also 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 1x1 not sorry
 
i think it came from this:
When first method was developed and learned by people, we became curious because of the general way to solve
"we all do it the same way but who has the best comprehension?"
then we found different ways to solve.
 
I was thinking about life the other day when I realized: Why is speedcubing the way it is now? What got people so invested in this puzzle that they were willing to try to solve it as fast as possible? And why just this puzzle, not riddles, wooden puzzles, etc?
This thread will get your thoughts on why the Rubik's Cube and other twisty puzzles are the most incredible, yet exciting and addictive puzzles.
btw this thread could become a book later with all the ideas that pop up.
When the first method was made, I think the public was a bit too curious. After all, the cube has a quintillion combinations. So, people decided to make better, enhanced versions of their own. And I guess thats what happened.
 
The Rubik's Cube has some kind of optimal difficulty. I don't mean solving in the first place but the optimization process that comes with getting faster. CubeHead also once said in one of his vids that the randomness is making it addictive, like scrolling through instagram.

When it comes to why cubing has become big: There are a lot of things and decisions that were important. For instance I don't think cubing would be that successful if there was no inspection time.
 
For almost anything, there's a niche that exists. Somewhere out there is a group of people who collect vintage toilet paper, and a group of people who keep their houses dusty for the aesthetic. The cube is so popular as a toy (450 million+ units sold, best selling toy iirc) that there's bound to be some nerds like us who naturally gravitate towards it.
 
We started cubing so Max Park could take all the records.... lol jk but in all seriousness, I think that a huge factor was the satisfaction people get when they can solve an "impossible" puzzle. Then when you start feeling the satisfaction of shaving off second off of second, it gets, in a good way, to be oddly addictive.
 
We started cubing so Max Park could take all the records.... lol jk but in all seriousness, I think that a huge factor was the satisfaction people get when they can solve an "impossible" puzzle. Then when you start feeling the satisfaction of shaving off second off of second, it gets, in a good way, to be oddly addictive.
Nothing is impossible, so people had to figure out how to do it to prove that theory right.
 
I asked chatgpt. It gave a rather interesting response. Perhaps @DuckubingCuber347 would find this intriguing.
Once upon a time, in a mythical land filled with talking ducks and magical creatures, there lived two ducks named Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber. Zzoomer was known for his legendary Valk Elite speedcube, which he had won after defeating a powerful wizard in a game of wits. TheCubingCuber was also an accomplished speedcuber who had recently acquired the highly coveted Tengyun v1 speedcube.

One day, while they were practicing their speedcubing skills by the lake, they noticed a group of ducks gathered around a strange object. It was a Rubik's cube, but it was different from anything they had ever seen before.

As they got closer, they noticed that the cube was glowing with a strange energy. Suddenly, the cube opened up, revealing a small, glowing duck inside. The duck introduced herself as Rubikia, the goddess of speedcubing, and explained that she had been trapped inside the cube for centuries.

Rubikia went on to explain that she had been the one to invent the Rubik's cube, but her creations had been stolen by an evil sorcerer who had used his magical cubes for his own dark purposes. Rubikia had been trapped inside the cube by the sorcerer, but her magic had allowed him to remain alive and conscious all these years.

Feeling sorry for Rubikia and intrigued by his story, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber asked her how they could help. Rubikia explained that she wanted to share the joy of speedcubing with the world, but she needed their help to spread the word.

Together, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber set out to teach other ducks the art of speedcubing. They started with their own community and soon word spread to neighboring lands. Before long, speedcubing had become a popular pastime among ducks everywhere.

And that is how speedcubing came to be a thing in the mythical land of talking ducks, thanks to the efforts of Zzoomer, TheCubingCuber, and the magical Rubikia.
 
I asked chatgpt. It gave a rather interesting response. Perhaps @DuckubingCuber347 would find this intriguing.
Once upon a time, in a mythical land filled with talking ducks and magical creatures, there lived two ducks named Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber. Zzoomer was known for his legendary Valk Elite speedcube, which he had won after defeating a powerful wizard in a game of wits. TheCubingCuber was also an accomplished speedcuber who had recently acquired the highly coveted Tengyun v1 speedcube.

One day, while they were practicing their speedcubing skills by the lake, they noticed a group of ducks gathered around a strange object. It was a Rubik's cube, but it was different from anything they had ever seen before.

As they got closer, they noticed that the cube was glowing with a strange energy. Suddenly, the cube opened up, revealing a small, glowing duck inside. The duck introduced herself as Rubikia, the goddess of speedcubing, and explained that she had been trapped inside the cube for centuries.

Rubikia went on to explain that she had been the one to invent the Rubik's cube, but her creations had been stolen by an evil sorcerer who had used his magical cubes for his own dark purposes. Rubikia had been trapped inside the cube by the sorcerer, but her magic had allowed him to remain alive and conscious all these years.

Feeling sorry for Rubikia and intrigued by his story, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber asked her how they could help. Rubikia explained that she wanted to share the joy of speedcubing with the world, but she needed their help to spread the word.

Together, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber set out to teach other ducks the art of speedcubing. They started with their own community and soon word spread to neighboring lands. Before long, speedcubing had become a popular pastime among ducks everywhere.

And that is how speedcubing came to be a thing in the mythical land of talking ducks, thanks to the efforts of Zzoomer, TheCubingCuber, and the magical Rubikia.
Indeed. This is how the ducks came to be, and will always be, forever.
 
I asked chatgpt. It gave a rather interesting response. Perhaps @DuckubingCuber347 would find this intriguing.
Once upon a time, in a mythical land filled with talking ducks and magical creatures, there lived two ducks named Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber. Zzoomer was known for his legendary Valk Elite speedcube, which he had won after defeating a powerful wizard in a game of wits. TheCubingCuber was also an accomplished speedcuber who had recently acquired the highly coveted Tengyun v1 speedcube.

One day, while they were practicing their speedcubing skills by the lake, they noticed a group of ducks gathered around a strange object. It was a Rubik's cube, but it was different from anything they had ever seen before.

As they got closer, they noticed that the cube was glowing with a strange energy. Suddenly, the cube opened up, revealing a small, glowing duck inside. The duck introduced herself as Rubikia, the goddess of speedcubing, and explained that she had been trapped inside the cube for centuries.

Rubikia went on to explain that she had been the one to invent the Rubik's cube, but her creations had been stolen by an evil sorcerer who had used his magical cubes for his own dark purposes. Rubikia had been trapped inside the cube by the sorcerer, but her magic had allowed him to remain alive and conscious all these years.

Feeling sorry for Rubikia and intrigued by his story, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber asked her how they could help. Rubikia explained that she wanted to share the joy of speedcubing with the world, but she needed their help to spread the word.

Together, Zzoomer and TheCubingCuber set out to teach other ducks the art of speedcubing. They started with their own community and soon word spread to neighboring lands. Before long, speedcubing had become a popular pastime among ducks everywhere.

And that is how speedcubing came to be a thing in the mythical land of talking ducks, thanks to the efforts of Zzoomer, TheCubingCuber, and the magical Rubikia.
What prompt did you use for this?
 
Back to potentially serious conversation...
@Garf , you mention a couple of other puzzle genre's on your original post. Those only have one way to approach and answer. There are jigsaw puzzle solving competitions for the same reason that there are twisty puzzle competitions, there are multiple ways to approach the solution. Whether it be a researched speed solving technique or a personal preference approach that just works for you, there are many different ways to approach this puzzle. I doubt that Mr. Erno Rubik ever imagined the twisty puzzle community becoming as large as it has, but he has to be proud of himself for being the first person to ever solve the damn 3x3, even if it wasn't the best approach. At the time, his approach was the most logical and straight-forward way that he had developed, and look what it led to; an entire culture of people always searching for the next best way. This puzzle is forever improvable, if for no other person than the one solving it. That's why the speed solving community has grown so easily, quickly, and interestingly. Everyone has room to improve. The twisty puzzle community overall is a completely different build (pun intended). The basic idea of the 3x3 has been transformed into so many incredible puzzles that likely would never have existed without Mr. Rubik's randomly created for a geometry type class puzzle. This world can, and will, continue to grow because there are so many shapes and so many ways to turn them!

Don't be afraid to step away from your comfort zone, folks. The WCA speed stuff is great, but there are so many more things that this simple (now that we can solve it) puzzle has led us to!
 
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