Best reaction to you solving the cube

[bvleb96]

At school:
How did you do that can you teach me!

 

[FlowingRiver94]

Cleaned up version:
Holy crap! How in the freakin' heck did you do that? What are you, a psychic or something?

 

[badmephisto]

i just had a funny reaction recently when i showed one of my friend's friends.: Complete silence with a long stare

I also went through a funny dilemma on subway the other day:
Some guy was showing off solving the Rubik's cube in a filled train, so naturally he had quite a few spectators, and he was explaining how he did it to some random kids, and it seemed like he really loved it, being the center of attention. His average had to be around a minute. I was wondering if I should take out my cube from my pocket on my bag and just solve it, because I was sitting only 2 seats away from him... It would certainly be funny, but in the end I decided against it and kept silent. Not exactly sure what would be best. Sometimes I think I should have done it for the kicks.

 

[Dene]

You should have, he would have been owned so bad, it would have been the ultimate shame >.<

 

[Hadley4000]

You should have, he would have been owned so bad, it would have been the ultimate shame >.<

No shame. Being able to solve the cube at all is something to be proud of. I mean, it's not near as hard as people make it out to be, but still something to be proud of.

 

[abbracadiabra]

Good choice, badmephisto. You had no reason to steal his thunder - there was nothing for you to gain in that situation, but quite a lot for him to loose. I bet that experience did wonders for his self-confidence, and I'm glad for him.

He should be proud that he can solve the cube. You should be even more proud of your restraint. It has increased my respect for you a hundred-fold. I already admired and respected your communication skills and teaching ability based on your youtube videos. I now admire and respect your humanity.

 

[ajmorgan25]

i just had a funny reaction recently when i showed one of my friend's friends.: Complete silence with a long stare

I also went through a funny dilemma on subway the other day:
Some guy was showing off solving the Rubik's cube in a filled train, so naturally he had quite a few spectators, and he was explaining how he did it to some random kids, and it seemed like he really loved it, being the center of attention. His average had to be around a minute. I was wondering if I should take out my cube from my pocket on my bag and just solve it, because I was sitting only 2 seats away from him... It would certainly be funny, but in the end I decided against it and kept silent. Not exactly sure what would be best. Sometimes I think I should have done it for the kicks.

lol, I have to admit I would have busted mine out, especially if I had times like yours. Although I wouldn't have been completely arrogant about it. I would have challenged him to a race for fun and then helped him out and showed everyone else.

Another response I've gotten quite a bit, and someone else has said it to...."You're like Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness." I looked it up on YouTube and sure enough he can do it. Takes him probably 2-3 minutes to do it though. The title says he did it in 55 seconds but he already had F2L done.

 

[badmephisto]

Good choice, badmephisto. You had no reason to steal his thunder - there was nothing for you to gain in that situation, but quite a lot for him to loose. I bet that experience did wonders for his self-confidence, and I'm glad for him.

He should be proud that he can solve the cube. You should be even more proud of your restraint. It has increased my respect for you a hundred-fold. I already admired and respected your communication skills and teaching ability based on your youtube videos. I now admire and respect your humanity.

oh stop it!
but i do agree with you, that line of thinking was pretty much what ultimately lead to my final decision. Damn the respect, now it feels like I'll have to live up to it

 

[Hadley4000]

Good choice, badmephisto. You had no reason to steal his thunder - there was nothing for you to gain in that situation, but quite a lot for him to loose. I bet that experience did wonders for his self-confidence, and I'm glad for him.

He should be proud that he can solve the cube. You should be even more proud of your restraint. It has increased my respect for you a hundred-fold. I already admired and respected your communication skills and teaching ability based on your youtube videos. I now admire and respect your humanity.

That was quite deep.

 

[Dene]

Crap, I wouldn't have done it, but that's only because of my extreme social phobies >.< . However I don't quite follow your line of reasoning, Miss abbracadiabra. Where is the respect coming from? The fact that he isn't an arrogant show off?

 

[jackolanternsoup]

"Are you from the circus or something?"
I learn't after about an hour to take that as a compliment.... Hahaa

 

[Ken Daganio]

dChan : You`re half Filipino? Cool.

One time I was at a grocery store near home,
after unloading everything from my cart, i raced the cashier,
and she was like "WTF?!"

me and some other cubers we`re at a convenience store,
so this girls walk up and " Hey, you`re the guy from TV "
we we`re featured a few times on philippine television.

 

[abbracadiabra]

Crap, I wouldn't have done it, but that's only because of my extreme social phobies >.< . However I don't quite follow your line of reasoning, Miss abbracadiabra. Where is the respect coming from? The fact that he isn't an arrogant show off?

Ok, Dene - let me spell it out for you. Imagine you were on a train, quietly playing with your Rubiks cube, and a bunch of kids noticed you solving it and crowded around you. Imagine how nervous you might feel, and then imagine what it would feel like when you realized those kids were impressed by your abilities.

Now imagine Mr. Arrogant Speed Solver comes along and challenges you to a race that you haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Heck - you never had any intention of competing!!! All you were trying to do was quietly pass the time of day with your cube on your ride home. And if you felt pretty good about yourself a few minutes ago you sure feel lousy now, because this guy has completely put your limited abilities to shame. The kids are no longer impressed by you; in fact they don't even notice you because they're too busy paying homage to Mr. A.S.S. (hole) himself. Meanwhile, you put your cube in your pocket, and quietly promise yourself never to take it out in public again.

Now I ask you this: What did you ever do to him?

Hope it was worth it for him, because any way I look at it he didn't stand to gain a thing, even though it cost you quite a lot. He stole your chance to feel good about your accomplishment, and by doing so he exacted a pretty hefty price on your self-esteem.

The whole thing comes down to honor and fair play. There is an appropriate arena for competition and this was not it. Competing with unknowing opponents who lack comparable skills isn't playing fair - it's like a professional athlete challenging an unsuspecting amateur. It's cheating.

So in short, the answer to your question is yup - I'm impressed that Badmephisto isn't an arrogant show-off. But there's more to it. By resisting the temptation to show off he demonstrated his honor and his integrity. Seriously, how many people on this forum do you think would have made the same choice? I think you'd find very few.

 

[AvGalen]

This is what I would have done in that situation:
Ask the guy if he can explain to me (and the others) how he solves the cube. After he explains the basics of his method I would get a/my cube and solve it using his method asking him if I am doing it correctly and complimenting him on his teaching skills. This way he really feels good about himself, the others respect him even more, I have met another cuber (I would invite him to a tournament after the others have lost interest) and maybe I have learned a new method.

I cannot imagine that someone has gone to a competition and not have talked to almost everyone over there. When I was at the US Open I talked to almost everyone, including Dan Cohen, Jon Choi, "The Caltech clan (Shelley, Tyson, Ryan, all 3 Dzoans, etc)", Mike Hughey, Bob Burton, Joshua and many many others. When I met them (and others like Macky, Chris Hardwick, Harris Chan) at Worlds we talked a lot more. The only group I didn't talk to was the Japanese group which was really a closed group. My advice: Just start talking with everyone during competitions and especially in the "afterparties" which often last all through the night. If you want to talk to Tyson because you want to "worship" him, you can start by offering him a magic, smash it with a hammer and throw it in a hat

 

[Dene]

Crap, I wouldn't have done it, but that's only because of my extreme social phobies >.< . However I don't quite follow your line of reasoning, Miss abbracadiabra. Where is the respect coming from? The fact that he isn't an arrogant show off?

Ok, Dene - let me spell it out for you. Imagine you were on a train, quietly playing with your Rubiks cube, and a bunch of kids noticed you solving it and crowded around you. Imagine how nervous you might feel, and then imagine what it would feel like when you realized those kids were impressed by your abilities.

Your explanation of course makes sense, but this first part doesn't necessarily. If the person came onto the train with a Rubik's cube going "hey everyone, look what I can do!" and started showing off and was extremely arrogant about it themselves, then don't you think knocking them down a notch could be of more benefit, by showing them that they aren't as good as they seem to believe that they are?
I mean, sometimes it is for someones own good if they learn that their own arrogance is undeserved and that they should stop being such an attention-seeker.
Of course you may disagree, and say that it is better not to leave them completely shamed and publicly humiliated, but I say, if you set yourself up for it, then it is your own problem.
(through all of this, don't forget that I still would not have done anything myself).

 

[badmephisto]

This is what I would have done in that situation:
Ask the guy if he can explain to me (and the others) how he solves the cube. After he explains the basics of his method I would get a/my cube and solve it using his method asking him if I am doing it correctly and complimenting him on his teaching skills. This way he really feels good about himself, the others respect him even more, I have met another cuber (I would invite him to a tournament after the others have lost interest) and maybe I have learned a new method.

I cannot imagine that someone has gone to a competition and not have talked to almost everyone over there. When I was at the US Open I talked to almost everyone, including Dan Cohen, Jon Choi, "The Caltech clan (Shelley, Tyson, Ryan, all 3 Dzoans, etc)", Mike Hughey, Bob Burton, Joshua and many many others. When I met them (and others like Macky, Chris Hardwick, Harris Chan) at Worlds we talked a lot more. The only group I didn't talk to was the Japanese group which was really a closed group. My advice: Just start talking with everyone during competitions and especially in the "afterparties" which often last all through the night. If you want to talk to Tyson because you want to "worship" him, you can start by offering him a magic, smash it with a hammer and throw it in a hat

but if the others tried it as well, then they would feel stupid because they would think they are just not getting it fast enough compared to you but it sure would be really funny to pretend to be a fast learner though

edit: oh and Dene that's a good point also. It depends largely on the nature of the person's presentation. If he was some dumb show off kid I would have much fewer second thoughts.

 

[ajmorgan25]

I think it would have been ok to show off your skills as long as you weren't being arrogant about it. Show him up once or twice, then teach him a few things.

 

[amateurguy]

Instead of bumping in and solving your own cube however, it might be good to go up to him and say: "Hey! You can speedsolve a Rubik's cube too? And I thought that I was alone in this area!"

You both can exchange tips/methods (especially like if he's using Petrus and you're using Fridrich). Besides I'm sure he'd appreciate learning something from a more experienced cuber. You'd probably make a new friend in the process and who knows, he might become a forum member too.

This actually happened to me when my distant cousin from overseas came over to my place and when he saw my scrambled cube, he picked it up and surprisingly solved it. Although I could solve it much faster than him, I knew it wasn't nice to act cocky and all, so I did teach him a few tricks (like changing his 4-look LL to a 3-look). What wonders a Rubik's cube can to family relationships! Lol!

And for best reaction to me (I was finishing OLL and heading on to PLL):
"Oh look... he's got all the yellows... and the... he's mixing it up again... and... what the heck! How did you do that?!!"

 

[SajberPinGu]

@amatureguy that one was hilarious

I have got quite a few most of them "How do you do that?!"
I even met a fellow cuber which turned out to take the same class as me on the train lol.
There is one guy that always sais im supersmart and i try to convince him that Im a normal guy very time so annoying!

I thougt of the best earlier but forgot it whilest reading this great thread!

 

[Stefan]

About the train story: I probably would've apporached him. How often do you meet other cubers except at competitions? I never do. Is there any cuber who wouldn't want to meet other cubers? Keeping quiet is a wasted opportunity for *both*.