How would I wish to re-announce UF5 and letter quads given a chance?

[abunickabhi]

I agree I have started on the wrong foot when UF5 was discussed, and work started on it in 2018. A lot of cubers dismissed it and mocked me for pursuing it. I also had an ambitious attitude, lack of communication skills, boasting and making false promises. I had no experience of product launch, public relations and information disclosure.

Before I state how I would like to re-announce let's study two crazy projects and how the cubing community took it. I will take 2 examples of how crazy projects were announced to the cubing world and what I learnt from that:

I really liked how Preston announced his massive 49x49x49 8kg to the cubing world. He kept his work private for 5+ years, in order to insure him from mockery in case of failure, and he announced in a well described matter with proof on the twisty puzzles forum. Preston still has not formally made a video on his channel, he is going to do it in a month. He will carefully compile all the time lapses and make a video which shows the process. He also gave interviews where he explained how he handled the time, money and doubt related to this project.

I am also impressed with how Edmarter announced that he knows full 1LLL by uploading actual solves. It was one-time upload with some follow-up to his learnings. Also he did not have the best fingertricks. He also did not post him doing 1LLL in official WCA solves which some cubers would need to have complete proof. Since the last 2 years there has not been any more videos. He also posted journey to 1LLL which was useful, but the final ao100 video is what mattered.

How I would strategize the announcement of UF5 and letter quads if I were to announce in 2024:

1. Do an insane multi attempt at Worlds 2025 or later, getting a result which seems improbable with 3-style and all the advanced algsets like LTCT, floating, 2e2e', T2C etc
2. Just play low-key and do not tell anyone about this and get good official results, if needed keep a detailed document ready for explanation to the delegate after a good result, as we cannot expect the delegate to understand the entirety of the new algset in one verbal explanation.
3. Wait for a few more years before making any kind of announcement
4. Keep things under the wraps until I get all the fingertrickable algs discovered and all algs revised and memorized by anki decks.
5. Keeping under the wraps is near impossible given my nature and how backstabbing few cubers can be if I casually mention about this algset in some personal message or in a conversation
6. Sell UF5 and LQs as useful for MBLD rather than 3BLD, as fluidity and less mental effort is prioritized for 3BLD and complex thoughts or algs should be avoided so that we do not get DNFs due to nerves
7. Do not sell this set as a work in progress but as a finished product with actual proof, for better acceptability
8. Have 100+ reconstructions and examples ready for analysis (I already have this in example solves category of SS)

How I would strategize the announcement of UF5 and letter quads if I were to announce in 2019 or before:

1. Just don't, I am not prepared for all the questions and responses.
2. I am not well-versed with all the algs and do not have too much useful contribution on the 5-style discord.
3. My BLD skill level is not upto the mark to even consider learning a small subset of UF5. I need to be sub-15 consistently to try out UF5.
4. I do not know how to identify the entire scope of the project, I should give it a long think and see the feasibility of all the consequences
5. I do not know how to stop conversations and how to identify well-wishers so I will do a bad job answering doubts about UF5
6. Cubing community is not mature enough to not troll this algset so I should assess upto what extent I announce the algset and memo-set
7. I have not yet video documented all the algs with fingertricks, also I do not have usage of these algs in actual solves
8. I do not have enough free time to pursue it, and the community expects me to work on this like a jobless maniac since I already made the announcement without sufficient proof
9. Do not seek too much community help as no one will find this useful, and worth the effort
10. Do not write documents trying to lure, misguide or train other people into taking up UF5
11. Worry about your reputation and honor a lot, do not be casual about yourself and worry about your status and how people perceive you after you disclose new information, tldr, be very careful and play it slow and safe

 

[ProStar]

Isn’t there the issue that you have to learn 5- style edges first?

 

[abunickabhi]

Isn’t there the issue that you have to learn 5- style edges first?

Yes, UF5 edges is the only set being explored. Everything else is not viable.

 

[abunickabhi]

Was developing UF5 worth the backlash, hate, negativity, troll, silent treatment, online and in-person block, defamation, ganging up and flaming etc I received from specific pockets of the community?

Short answer is that I should not care about one pocket of the community becoming hostile and negative. I should continue my ongoing "work" with exploration and refutation of UF5.

My philosophy of not going back is that I want to see the end of the tunnel of a project that is just so ambitious that no one would take it up. I have done this in the part by doing a serious study of string theory in physics and have a similar mindset when I wanted to take responsibility for developing UF5. There is no economics in this effort and the timescale for progress is hard to evaluate which makes a capitalistic mind go bonkers and hateful seeing such endeavours existing.

Taking responsibility for such an impossible task does sound like suicide on paper, but I think it is a matter of perception on what is considered as impossible. I always like to take the example of how iPhones or compact mobile devices would be perceived if they were introduced in the global market in the 1700s when people were barely comfortable with electromagnetism and were in the process of rediscovering it in the human civilization. I feel no one would use iPhones at all in 1700s and it would receive a lot of negativity and confusion from all pockets of the world.

There is always the path of doing secretive development, which defense and many research organizations do, so that we are not answerable to the public eye and their technologies are protected. I personally feel UF5 is sustainable as secretive development, as well as public. This long development cycle of UF5 needs public feedback and evaluation so that it is well understood and aligned with the efforts that current blindsolvers are putting to push their limits.

One thing that might kill UF5 development in the future I feel, is the busy-ness of my life. Since 2019, I have been not giving any time for cubing improvement and practice, which has made my level constant and my goal setting frustrating. I do have the willpower to power through this improvement drought, but in the long term, I am getting busier with life and financial responsibilities that will kill UF5 development and usage in actual multi-blind attempts.

The progress that has been made so far has been significant and I am happy with the over ambitious and hate-receiving path I have chosen. It has helped me look at problems differently and made me better in communication skills as I engage less with toxic cubers and have developed a hard skin.

I do however imagine a community where the serious multi-blinders appreciate UF5 development as a promising tangent and give their inputs regularly so that it actually becomes viable at a subset level in serious WCA competitive top level MBLDing. Wishful thinking is best done fleetingly, and it is time I get back to reality and continue working on UF5 as it gives me tremendous joy to discover new commutator structures, symmetries, optimizations and reduction in mental effort in the long term. I am fine with an artistic and mathematical perception of blindsolving, rather than a gaming or TPS and attempts spam perspective.

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

what is UF5? 5-style? Would it require less cycles since it cycles more pieces?

 

[bldcuber314]

what is UF5? 5-style? Would it require less cycles since it cycles more pieces?

UF5 is 5-style edges with UF buffer, and yes it would require less cycles

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

UF5 is 5-style edges with UF buffer, and yes it would require less cycles

oh so instead of the UR edge you use the UF edge ok.

 

[abunickabhi]

oh so instead of the UR edge you use the UF edge ok.

UR is also not the popular choice for 3-style,

The priority order roughly goes like, UF, UB, UR and then other edge pieces.

 

[abunickabhi]

I am also improving in one important communication skill that I lacked in 2019.

The art of being soft, diplomatic, less revealing and cautious while putting a point across.

In many instances on the BLD server chats, I have put out very strong statements defending UF5 progress when it was still work in progress. These statements were so ill formed as they would contradict easily and needed a lot of clarifications to become sensible.

I should have been clear that I have very free time since 2019 as I have an insanely workaholic tech and research career to climb, and make it clear to my rivals that I still do not want to give up on the concept of UF5 and the development of it.

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

too many algs. not worth it

I would rather learn a language like chinese or japanese with thousand ideograms than spending my time learning so many algs for so little reward

do as you want tho

if you want to spend your time learning thousands of sequences to improve your times by some milliseconds, go on

I do however imagine a community where the serious multi-blinders appreciate UF5 development as a promising tangent and give their inputs regularly so that it actually becomes viable at a subset level in serious WCA competitive top level MBLDing. Wishful thinking is best done fleetingly, and it is time I get back to reality and continue working on UF5 as it gives me tremendous joy to discover new commutator structures, symmetries, optimizations and reduction in mental effort in the long term. I am fine with an artistic and mathematical perception of blindsolving, rather than a gaming or TPS and attempts spam perspective.

sorry if I'm being negative but I don't think that community exists.

BUT discovering commutator structures, symmetries, and so on are meritory reasearch material that should be properly documented, not in form of databases wit thousands of random algs and letter quads, but proper insights of techniques and methodologies on commutator and alg construction

 

[abunickabhi]

too many algs. not worth it

I would rather learn a language like chinese or japanese with thousand ideograms than spending my time learning so many algs for so little reward

do as you want tho

if you want to spend your time learning thousands of sequences to improve your times by some milliseconds, go on



sorry if I'm being negative but I don't think that community exists.

BUT discovering commutator structures, symmetries, and so on are meritory reasearch material that should be properly documented, not in form of databases wit thousands of random algs and letter quads, but proper insights of techniques and methodologies on commutator and alg construction

Yes, documenting commutator structures, symmetries and know-hows has been on my agenda since the beginning.

Data visualization, stats, insights, pitfalls and important conclusions are drawn from the research that is being done while discovering UF5.

It is a slow process, hopefully I will have a good insights document ready to be publicly shared.

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

too many algs. not worth it

I would rather learn a language like chinese or japanese with thousand ideograms than spending my time learning so many algs for so little reward

do as you want tho

if you want to spend your time learning thousands of sequences to improve your times by some milliseconds, go on



sorry if I'm being negative but I don't think that community exists.

BUT discovering commutator structures, symmetries, and so on are meritory reasearch material that should be properly documented, not in form of databases wit thousands of random algs and letter quads, but proper insights of techniques and methodologies on commutator and alg construction

how many algs is UF5?

 

[abunickabhi]

how many algs is UF5?

It is 126k cases, but learning all of them is ridiculous.

Learning upto 8 movers is good, it is less than 10k