I've been cubing for six years.

Escher said:
I know you said idk, but do you have any theories?

With any hobby doing it solely to be the best at it is a sure-fire recipe for failure in 99% of cases; it should be about the sensation itself, with success as a byproduct. I was just doing it for the former, and now I realise the whole time I should have been doing it for the latter :)

Edit:


LOL. I tend to just play Spirit Breaker or Tiny. People don't tend to like me much in pub matches, on either team.
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Just a post like that almost makes me feel like I'm wasting time cubing.
 
I think the problem is my lack of attendance to competitions.
I've stayed pretty active on the forums and #rubik, but I haven't actually /seen/ cubers in a while.

I think it's about time I get myself to a competition!

Anyway, six years today <3
 
I learned how to solve the Rubik's cube in March 2013. I usually cube every day, but some days I spend more time on it than others. Just recently I have began learning CFOP. I feel like I could be progressing way more than I am now if I put some more time into practicing. I am just lazy with learning algorithms and new methods. I also find myself wanting to meet a friend who cubes or somebody who is as into it as I am who lives near me.
 
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Reading through the forum I found this topic to be very interesting. Stachu, I interpreted your blog post, and this thread, to be about changing perceptions of the cubing community. However, I do feel like Dene is spot on in that you are really the one who is changing. To answer your question from your blog, no I am not upset about the complacency of cubers. I don't really see it as a complacency of cubers, just as people who value this hobby differently from others. There are those who really are passionate about cubing, and there are those who just enjoy it.

I've really been struggling lately trying to figure out where I fit into the modern cubing community. In the early days I was a connector, trying to bring people together. After a few years I got pretty good at certain events and even got competitive in a couple. Then I hit my prime for speedsolving and was loving it. When I passed my prime for speedsolving I was in a funk and felt like I was at a crossroads trying to figure out where to go from there. I decided to jump into blindfolded cubing with all my energy. Then I hit my prime for blindfolded cubing and was loving it. Now I feel like I've passed my prime for blindfolded cubing and am at a crossroads again, and again I feel like I am in a funk and don't really know what to do. The thought of learning an algorithm set sounds so boring and dull to me now, whereas at one point I was convinced that I was going to learn the ZB method (lol, I did not even come close). I still have an interest in bettering my blindfold memory methods, and may one day still take on this project. Most of my cubing nowadays is cubing just for the sake of cubing, and I'm loving it.

Life priorities are very different for me now, I don't have anywhere near the time I used to have to use for practicing. However, I still take a twisty puzzle to work almost every single day. I give my coworkers updates on cubing news like Eric Limeback's new world record for solving the most cubes, and I showed them all the picture or Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Spanish Championship.

I can recognize many different phases I have gone through in the time that I have been cubing. Cubing has definitely changed my life, and I really cannot imagine not cubing moving forward. I feel like I will compete a lot less than I used to. Right now I have a goal to go to worlds every two years for as long as I can, and help organizers near me with their tournaments as those opportunities arise.

My life is so much better having discovered this hobby of ours. I would view myself as someone who is still passionate about cubing, but I sometimes wonder if the community views me as one of those guys who dropped off the map and gave up cubing since I don't compete as much as I used to. I enjoy aspects of this hobby differently as time goes on. I don't imagine that will stop in the future either.

15 years cubing for me, and still going strong.
 
I'd have to agree with Chris and Dene.

It has been almost 8 years now for me. I think anything you do in life long enough you will eventually want change. I think this goes for almost anything - work, love, hobbies, etc. Some commitment is more necessary than others. When it comes to a hobby like this, I think it is important to find the enjoyment or happiness you get out of it within yourself. Are you cubing for yourself, or for others? Cubing is one of those hobbies where people compliment you easily, and it creates some sort of pride, which anyone who picks up a cube and solves it can have. This make people subconsciously do it for that pride, as opposed to for themselves. Add the competitive nature to it which brings even more of "pride", for lack of a better word.

Throughout the last several years of my life, other hobbies have come and gone, but cubing has always been there. I still enjoy it almost as much as when I started - the difference being that I now have a lot more insight into the hobby as well as having many other hobbies that I didn't have then. It is now a matter now of prioritizing them each day - which one do I feel like doing most? Just recently I started learning more algorithms, which I still find fun to do. The cool thing about cubing is that there is always more you can do and learn. There is really no limit. Get faster, optimize more, learn theory, learn new tricks, learn a new puzzle, or, just practice for the pure enjoyment you get out of that.

To answer your question: it is likely your viewpoint changing, which is totally natural and expected. Think about a hobby like cubing: it is something that almost anyone could do, it is continually interesting, it has a great community, and it can be challenging. I think that criteria makes it a very attractive hobby that a lot more people would do if they knew it existed.

The way I look at hobbies is do them as long as your having fun. And when you don't enjoy it anymore, don't do it. Find another of the countless things you can do. Don't have a hobby and do it for others, do it for yourself.
 
StachuK1992 said:
I think it's about time I get myself to a competition!
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That would be cool, it's been a while since VA Open 08. Maybe CMU Fall?

I feel like my cubing story is really unique, yet very similar to yours. I started learning to cube via Dan Brown's videos not too long after you (January 6, 2008), and became immersed in the cubing community not too long after. As much as getting sub-20 on 3x3 was a huge goal for me, I really enjoyed the friends I made along the way, and the places I went to see all for a cube. Eventually, my will to practice just wore off.

As I entered college, I made friends, and friends became a lot closer to me than they ever were. I prioritized trying to make friends that were close to me than ones that were really far away, this included high school friends and cuber friends. On top of that, Michigan is hard. As a result, my will to practice faded, and I spent minimal time solving a cube. I would take it out a bit, show to friends, keep up with the latest in cubing news/records, but never really had the time or will to go to a competition again.

While I was doing an REU at Mount Holyoke, I met a guy at one of the professor's dinner parties that had a stickerless GuHong v2. I was absolutely amazed at how much cubing technology improved in three years, and I had to order one. I was able to get back to sub-20 times very quickly with that cube, but I realized that was probably worse than my old times on a good ol' Type F in early 2009. Either way, my spark for cubing was slowly coming back.

Then, my senior year, I met my current girlfriend, Lauren. Before we began to date, she googled my name and found my WCA profile, and asked what that was all about. I taught her how to solve a cube right around when we started dating, and she was interested to see what was up with all the competitions I had been to. So it's been a strange come-and-go story, but I'm back to cubing now, and it's amazing to me how quickly I felt welcomed back by the community. It's weird to say this, but had I not met her, I might not have run two competitions in Ann Arbor this year, let alone be making this post right now.

I think the main point I'm trying to make here is that cubing has me (among many of us!) on some really strange journeys, and whether or not the cubing community as a whole has changed drastically since we started, that shouldn't matter, because all of us are constantly changing on our own journeys of life. The cube and cubers are always there, and for those that became so immersed in cubing, many will never completely walk away from it.
 
Maybe this is one of the relevant times to compare cubing to other sports. First you feel really into this new found interest, then you start to want to be the best. You meet a lot of people with the same interest and have fun. In most cases you find out that you can't be the best. Some people drop out at this point, but most go on, because you love the sport and the people. You grow older and you find out that you want to give more to the sport than you own skills. This is when you become a coach of the local little league football club or which ever relevant sport.

I feel like that is the next steep in speedsolving and a step which will be hard to take and follow through. With a few people in my local area we made a club for speedsolving, teaching and competing. We are setup in the area in the same way as a football club and people can register their kids or who ever and come and learn how to speedsolve. Our city administration is very excited about it and talk about talent development and sending a team to the nationals and are really supportive. I'm excited to see how it will develop from here. It would be cool to see local clubs shoot up around the country and getting speedsolving organized on a deeper level.

That's how I'm taking my involvement in speedcubing to a higher level.
 
Escher said:
I know you said idk, but do you have any theories?

With any hobby doing it solely to be the best at it is a sure-fire recipe for failure in 99% of cases; it should be about the sensation itself, with success as a byproduct. I was just doing it for the former, and now I realise the whole time I should have been doing it for the latter.
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How/Why are you so awesome at explaining? Even earlier when you spoke about how you practice f2ls, you were simply crisp and the words were put together perfectly. I've nt met you/ seen any of your solves in person, but I'm already your fan.
 
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I first solve was in 2005, and 2014 will be my 8th year competing. Getting too old for this bs.
 
Bhargav777 said:
How/Why are you so awesome at explaining? Even earlier when you spoke about how you practice f2ls, you were simply crisp and the words were put together perfectly. I've nt met you/ seen any of your solves in person, but I'm already your fan.
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Haha, thank you for the kind words. I'm an English Lit/Philosophy student so I have to spend a) a lot of time writing about things and b) making them look pretty to please the Literature department. I've also spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about cubing.
 
StachuK1992 said:
the age of the average cuber is diminishing and the people that used to care are dying off quickly.
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I took a quick look at the average cuber (sat beside me here) and their age appears to be increasing at the normal rate as measured by the currently recognised standard techniques (i.e. increase in number of candles on cake, year-on-year).

Current studies also show that the people who used to care are dying off at the correct rate (i.e. not too quick).

I think you might benefit from an adjustment to the way you are looking at "the problem": are you getting less passionate about it but have ambivalent feelings about that? Are those feelings possibly justified to yourself by the dilution of "care" by newer, younger, cubers?
 
Escher said:
Haha, thank you for the kind words. I'm an English Lit/Philosophy student so I have to spend a) a lot of time writing about things and b) making them look pretty to please the Literature department. I've also spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about cubing.
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Please remain even more active on the forums. :D I seem to enjoy reading what ever you write :D
 
I'm young, but I can't see myself completely quitting.[/QUOTE]

I agree. For me, cubing is something that I see no reason to stop doing. Maybe there will be times when I have a brief hiatus from it, but I am sure I will always pick my cube up again, and do some solves for the rest of my life. Especially in old age someday, i'm sure I will spend countless hours sitting on the couch cubing haha!
 
Escher said:
I'm an English Lit/Philosophy student...
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You can tell.

In a good way!

I was once an English Lit student. Gutted that i didn't truly discover cubing till years later. I had SO much time on my hands!

I find it interesting how the vast majority of cubers seem to be more mathematically-minded, while the few arts majors I've noticed seem to be very interested in cubing theory. I guess it boils down to research-based learning vs. applied/practical. Personally, I find learning algorithms tedious, but could read about methods, substeps, etc., all night.

[/sweeping generalisation]
 
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