The Layer by Layer Podcast

[Kit Clement]

I'm going to temper your excitement a bit by saying that the actual amount of cubing content is much less than normal in this one.

 

[Running for cube]

I'm going to temper your excitement a bit by saying that the actual amount of cubing content is much less than normal in this one.

As long as Kit and Andrew talk in my ear for an hour I’m happy

 

[JDAW6]

I found out about this on these forums and went to check it out it was very good. I watched the whole thing

But it said the ‘S’ word in the beginning I am scarred for life now.

 

[Bingus Ringus McDingus]

GIANT W FOR THE LISTENERS!

 

[Running for cube]

I found out about this on these forums and went to check it out it was very good. I watched the whole thing

But it said the ‘S’ word in the beginning I am scarred for life now.

They said it once your fine

 

[Running for cube]

Also when I went to recommend the podcast to non cubers this is definitely the episode I’ll recommend

 

[JDAW6]

It should be R-rated lol.thankfully nobody was with me when it said bad word

 

[ProStar]

I'm going to temper your excitement a bit by saying that the actual amount of cubing content is much less than normal in this one.

Sir if you think we listen to this podcast for its cubing content you are very sorely mistaken.

Although it is funny hearing Andrew especially be totally out of touch with the cubing community and having completely forgotten things that just last episode he would’ve known as common knowledge.

Also wow I thought it’d only been 1 year. Congrats on the move and the new job, and however defending your dissertation ended up going. Hearing Andrew as a full on adult was a bit of a shift lol.

Kit, are you still actively involved in the WCA as a delegate/organizer or even just as a competition attendee? Or have you more or less moved on from the community?

It’s also worth mentioning that the most entertaining part for me was listening to you two have a discussion on a board game that doesn’t exist that was based off of a board game I’d never heard of and had no idea how it worked. I probably could’ve spent a large chunk of time hearing you discus strategies and never have any concerns for how the actual game was played

 

[Running for cube]

Yeah the board game metaphors were funny. I didn’t know the duck one existed. I also like how you recorded 2 years after you posted the last one did anyone else notice?

 

[Kit Clement]

It's good to hear that people didn't listen for the cubing content then, because we probably don't have as much to go on as we used to.

Kit, are you still actively involved in the WCA as a delegate/organizer or even just as a competition attendee? Or have you more or less moved on from the community?

I mostly took a break after moving out here. Being new to the area and not knowing the community around here while also wanting to focus my time on finishing my PhD were the main reasons I haven't been very active recently. I'm going to be a stage lead at nats this year, and I'll probably get back to delegating comps in Champaign once I move there.

 

[ProStar]

It's good to hear that people didn't listen for the cubing content then, because we probably don't have as much to go on as we used to.


I mostly took a break after moving out here. Being new to the area and not knowing the community around here while also wanting to focus my time on finishing my PhD were the main reasons I haven't been very active recently. I'm going to be a stage lead at nats this year, and I'll probably get back to delegating comps in Champaign once I move there.

Makes sense. How does it work when a delegate moves areas but remains a delegate? iirc you were the/a senior delegate of your area. Did you have a say so on who was your successor? Also, were there any potential issues with the area you moved to already having enough delegates? What would’ve happened in that case? I’m always interested in the inner workings of the WCA

 

[Kit Clement]

Makes sense. How does it work when a delegate moves areas but remains a delegate? iirc you were the/a senior delegate of your area. Did you have a say so on who was your successor? Also, were there any potential issues with the area you moved to already having enough delegates? What would’ve happened in that case? I’m always interested in the inner workings of the WCA

I gave my input to the board when I stepped down but they still hold an application process for senior delegate, so it's not really my say on who gets the position next. I can't remember who exactly applied outside of Dickman, but I think all the applicants were very qualified.

There's not really a "too many delegates" problem anymore. That used to be the philosophy when the WCA was smaller and the goal was to have fewer delegates to help promote consistency in rulings/procedures, but with how much things have grown now, the goal is just to appoint as many delegates that are qualified so you have a small army of delegates at every competition to make the job easier on everyone. I went to a few comps in the midwest since moving here and delegated one, and I don't really agree with the general style of scheduling/staffing that is typically used around here. Maybe a good topic for a future episode.

 

[Running for cube]

I gave my input to the board when I stepped down but they still hold an application process for senior delegate, so it's not really my say on who gets the position next. I can't remember who exactly applied outside of Dickman, but I think all the applicants were very qualified.

There's not really a "too many delegates" problem anymore. That used to be the philosophy when the WCA was smaller and the goal was to have fewer delegates to help promote consistency in rulings/procedures, but with how much things have grown now, the goal is just to appoint as many delegates that are qualified so you have a small army of delegates at every competition to make the job easier on everyone. I went to a few comps in the midwest since moving here and delegated one, and I don't really agree with the general style of scheduling/staffing that is typically used around here. Maybe a good topic for a future episode.

You guys should totally record until 69. Also I had a feeling Andrew was trying to bait you into the bell with the whole ear funnel thing Kit bc it seemed like he wanted you to say ear canal. Maybe it has to do with boats instead of sAILS this time

 

[ColorfulPockets]

I'm going to temper your excitement a bit by saying that the actual amount of cubing content is much less than normal in this one.

Idk, we talked about several competitions and events

 

[Running for cube]

Idk, we talked about several competitions and events

Yeah like fmc 2019/19 and the new disc golf wca event.

 

[Tabe]

I don't really agree with the general style of scheduling/staffing that is typically used around here. Maybe a good topic for a future episode.

I would love to hear this discussion.

 

[ProStar]

I would love to hear this discussion.

Seconded

Idk, we talked about several competitions and events

And the reg of the day!

Also, what was the joke at the start about the “triple posted Reddit comment”? I’m not an active redditor and don’t often look at either the LBL or Cubers subreddits

 

[Running for cube]

Ik your discussion of tillamook was literally 5 years ago but I have to say I had some a week ago and that stuff is

 

[Running for cube]

Does anyone know what episode the bell switched last? If someone knows I’ll sit down and listen to the last few episodes to help Andrew figure out his bell.

 

[ProStar]

I’ve started listening to some of the older episodes (as sparked by the new episode and because I’m in between podcasts to binge at the moment). In episode 32, you talked about a theoretical situation where all scramble states were generated and put into a list, and competitions just took from the top. Kit talked about how because it was sampling without replacement rather than the current method of generating with replacement (without replacement means that once a scramble has been used, it can never be used again since it’s taken off the list), and how the information about previous competitions could be used to deduce information about the remaining scrambles. Therefore it would be unfair since (for example) in 30 years we may know that ZZ is objectively a better method since all the high bad-edge scrambles have been generated already.

I appreciate the principal of this and how it would not be perfectly fair. But reasonably speaking, would it ever matter? 43 quintillion is an unimaginably large number. Even if we do a hundred years of cubing completions and have it grow rapidly as a hobby, could we ever generate enough scrambles to make it possible to do a statistical analysis on the “remaining” scrambles that would give you any helpful information? Surely over the sample size of all of the scrambles ever used in competition, the results would all even out. And the number of scrambles used would be such an infinitely small percentage of the number of states that it would never actually matter.

I’m not able to do a search of the WCA database at the moment, but I’d be curious to see exactly how many scrambles have been used in the 20 years or so since competitions began, and how many scrambles we will have used 100 years from now (even with generous growth estimates). Then seeing how that number compares to 43 quintillion (or even half of that, as proposed in the original question).

Just something I thought about when I was listening to the episode. Perhaps if you’re that desperate for topics you can do 12-episodes-later follow up on it. It was the episode “Hyperdimensional Supercomputer” (I remember it because it was released originally at 2x speed)