Look Ahead in Real Life

Furry

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Jun 28, 2013
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How have you utilized look-ahead in your real life, non-cubing related? I'll start off with a few of my examples.

  • Typing with 1 hand
  • While solving easy math problems in class, I usually look at the next one while writing down the previous

That's actually all I can think of ATM lol. See if you can come up with a grander list :)
 
I really can't think of anything, but as to the things you've listed: typing OH really isn't look-ahead because it's just a skill useful for people who need to type and use the mouse (or doing something else). You can even use the Dvorak OH layout for this stuff. You made a good point in the second one, where you do more "recognition" when you execute something easy, sort of like Cross to F2L transition (or EOLine to F2L transition for me).
 
The inverse is practical for me.

Many of you know I'm a musician. Because my sight-reading skills are well above average, I've been "looking ahead" for years. I believe this is why I never had serious issues with pausing in my solves. In addition, I think improving this in my Cubing has also strengthened my sight reading. So yeah, I notice a difference.
 
I think that that's true for me too.

In fact, now that I think about it, I've been looking ahead several words whenever I copy text.
 
Many of you know I'm a musician. Because my sight-reading skills are well above average, I've been "looking ahead" for years. I believe this is why I never had serious issues with pausing in my solves. In addition, I think improving this in my Cubing has also strengthened my sight reading. So yeah, I notice a difference.

I started cubing the same year I joined choir. I quickly improved in both cubing and musical ability, for lack of a better term, and I've consistently been one of the few people in my grade with the sight-readings like those of the people a year or two above me. It never occurred to me that the two might have some correlation!
 
I walk a lot, and at high speed, and often find myself in crowded foot-traffic. I use lookahead to determine the best route to manipulate myself through them. I do the same thing when ice skating, although that's more difficult with people who don't know how to skate and veer off at crazy angles without warning.
 
I also do it for walking, and for riding a bike. And once in a store with very long waiting lines and mine turned out to be the significantly slowest, I thought next time I should look for the best line already when entering the store (cause then I can see which lines go to how many cashiers and whether they look familiar).
 
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I think a few of you are interpreting lookahead as doing two things at once, Lol.
 
Lookahead is doing two things at once. I think you are seriously confused.

I often think about cubing, plan DIY projects, etc. while 'listening' to my wife. Is that lookahead? ;)

I guess lookahead is doing x while thinking about y, where x is so well practised that it can be executed without thinking, allowing you to think about y.

Things like driving are a good example - when you learn you have to think constantly - after a few years it's all subconscious, meaning you can think about other, more important things, like what's for tea or who's in the squad for the world cup warmup against Denmark.

I recently asked Faz about lookahead in a thread on here, and he said he tries not to think while solving. Take from that what you will!!!
 
I recently asked Faz about lookahead in a thread on here, and he said he tries not to think while solving. Take from that what you will!!!

When I do that, I end up doing exactly that. Personally, all it takes for me to get sub-15 times is to concentrate on turning slow and minimizing my move count.
 
As a skateboarder, visualization is key for not falling on your face, I guess that could be considered looking ahead in a way. You train yourself to know and feel what's coming next. Just muscle memory, and practice... A whole load of practice..
 
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