Things cubers want non-cubers to understand

[cubeflip]

When I'm solving a cube:

I'm not peeling the stickers off. :fp

I'm not a crazy genius. :fp

 

[teller]

U2 M' S' U' S U2 M U

Awesome...I didn't think of that. I love this site...

 

[irontwig]

Insisting on a technicality like this is quite useless when we don't want to explain FMC (and surely no one has seen a proper 20-move linear FMC), but ok, changed to "proper speedsolve" since yours is the second comment about this item.

I don't think it is a technicality at all. If non-cubers mention move counts albeit incorrect ones it suggests that they understand the challenge of solving efficiently, doesn't it? You can at least mention that it normally takes an expert and more than an hour and/or a really nice/easy/lucky scramble to get a solve in the low 20s.

 

[CubicNL]

Great page for an introduction, it'll surely help avoiding some misunderstandings.

 

[tx789]

It would be interesting o see how many non-cubers read this

 

[Stefan]

There should also be a "Things non-cubers want cubers to understand" page.

 

[Sebastien]

tell them, not us

 

[nlCuber22]

U2 M' S' U' S U2 M U

My intuitive solution was RUD'R'U'DM2U2M2U'D'RU'DR' o_O

 

[asportking]

They should make this a public service announcement or something, it would make cubers lives so much easier. By the way:

http://www.customink.com/designs/pe...IL-40778&cm_mmc=share-_-emailb-_-button-_-end

That is JTs version of the front side. Looks nice.

The one below is what I went with.

http://www.customink.com/designs/cu...46120&cm_mmc=hotlink-_-2-_-Body_txt-_-button1

That's EPIC. I might buy one.

 

[d4m4s74]

There should also be a "Things non-cubers want cubers to understand" page.

that would be easy. one entry
we don't care

 

[Stefan]

one entry
we don't care

But seriously, I think such a page could help as well, although I still imagine it for *us*. So more like "Things cubers should understand about non-cubers", i.e., how to deal with them. Macky's page already tries to improve the communication from the non-cuber direction, my suggested page would try to improve it from the cuber direction. For example:

• The word "algorithm" only confuses non-cubers and makes cubing appear more complicated and mystic than it is, so say "move sequence" or "sequence of moves" instead. Even the non-cubers who happen to already know "algorithm" already will still be confused, because we abuse the word (it has a much broader and different meaning in general).
• Non-cubers are terrible at scrambling. Scramble your cube yourself first, then give it to them for some further scrambling.

 

[macky]

Included a point about adjacent colors in stickers, but it's relatively unimportant.

I don't think it is a technicality at all. If non-cubers mention move counts albeit incorrect ones it suggests that they understand the challenge of solving efficiently, doesn't it? You can at least mention that it normally takes an expert and more than an hour and/or a really nice/easy/lucky scramble to get a solve in the low 20s.

(emphasis mine)

Good point, thanks. I hadn't thought about the bolded part. That's a good way to address the misunderstanding, and without explaining more than non-cubers care about. I've replaced the last sentence in the item with "It typically takes an expert an hour or more to solve a given scramble in under 25 moves."

 

[Lucas Garron]

Nicely written. I think this is a pretty thorough and accurate start.

I've been meaning to write up a sort of "press guide" we could send to reporters so they stop writing incorrect things. This would probably do.
Still, facts like: The Rubik's Cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 valid positions. This is "about 43 quintillion", but it's NOT 43 with 18 zeros after it.
And more of an overview of roughly how a cuber solves / thinks.

 

[MoRpHiiNe]

Great read, the only problem I have is that non-cubers would rarely go looking for a page about cubing... Cause I doubt they care lol...

 

[MrIndianTeen]

We're happy when you take any interest in our hobby! But it's even better if you avoid some misunderstandings

Hobby should be changed to sport.

 

[ben1996123]

Put something like:

The name of a cube (eg. 3x3x3) is the amount of pieces ("cubies") in each direction, not the amount of pieces, amount of stickers, or amount of stickers on each side.

 

[Rpotts]

Hobby should be changed to sport.

I disagree. It fits more in the "hobby" category than "sport" because it takes virtually no physical ability, relative to most sports. If cubing is a sport then so is pen spinning, yo-yo-ing, gaming, speed stacking and tons of other things I personally am not comfortable considering sports.

 

[nlCuber22]

Hobby should be changed to sport.

I'd just like to say that speedcubers that insist that cubing is a sport might just be too physically inadequate or lazy to take up a "real" sport. That or they just suck at them. It does technically fit the definition of a sport, but it takes next to no physical activity/strength.

 

[ElectricDoodie]

Hobby should be changed to sport.

I don't see cubing as an actual sport.

 

[Hershey]

How exactly can speedcubing be considered a sport?