I define a
beginner method as a method which sympathizes with the beginner cubist.
So that means a guide which isn't condescending which wants them to try to "think for themselves", passively getting them to think that they "shouldn't be trying to solve a cube if they aren't ready for the learning curve". Because if you really want them to think for themselves, WHY are you giving them a guide? The reason they are looking at a beginner guide is to solve the cube for the first time
with help. They have no pride (yet). They are coming to you humbly and humiliated due to the fact they couldn't solve it on their own. They just want to solve the thing!
You can't give "too much" help with a beginner guide. I think the more help you give, the more that they will want to become independent of the beginner guide in the future, because they will subconsciously feel "indadequate" for getting so much help at the beginning. The only thing is that with all of the help you give, you cannot make them intimidated with the quantity of content. This can be easily overcome if you can
effectively break a BIG problem into a bunch of smaller ones -- the divide and conquer method.
(Just to give you an example, if you're learning from a math textbook, do you want a
thin text which requires you to spend
30 minutes per page to comprehend, or a book twice its size which requires
7 minutes per page? And I am saying
30 minutes in this example, because a bad beginner's guide will require someone to solve the cube at each state over and over -- they lose a lot of time with starting over for a mistake. But a good one will help them to make
fewer mistakes along the way . . . to ultimately make the overall time and energy spent less.)
More specifically, I define a good beginner method as a guide which:
- Holds their hands as they walk into our world.
- Uses symbolic notation rather than letter notation, because let's be honest, it puts extra stress on the solver to learn what the prime symbol means, and that L' doesn't go in the same direction as R'. We don't need our guides to take as few pages as possible, as everything is digital these days. (We don't need to save money on ink!)
- Does not use slice turns (M,E,S), because it can be easy for a beginner to do r' instead of M because naturally we do r' R to do M, for example.
- Does not require turning both the back and front faces. (But of course, if cube rotations are not allowed, then just one of them, as we must have one for fixing edge orientation.)
- Doesn't require the learner to rotate the cube very much. (They literally have no experience with the cube, so requiring them to rotate the cube to match their case will get them (and the cube) disoriented!)
- A guide which tells them exactly which color pieces to focus on (no grayed out pieces --unless done minimally and with care -- or saying "the color of the front sticker" -- because they are not well acquainted with which the colors of the L, R, F, B, U, and D faces are yet. They are beginners), or gives them all color situations. (See how I handle the second layer in the guides linked to below. And another example is my COLL PDF from 2009 -- I literally provided every color possibility in an organized way. So that could actually be used for a case-by-case last layer beginner method.)
- A guide which is so simple to follow that it actually becomes boring to them to use after the first dozen solves or so. Bored = "I want to grow, get smarter, become more independent, more efficient, etc.". But you can't expect them to have this confidence at the very beginning . . . not everyone, at least. Because I think the main purpose of a beginner guide is to give them the confidence that they can follow instructions to solve the cube. That's basically it.
The only two approaches I can see are (1) Repetition or (2) case-by-case. I have two written guides (but I may eventually make these into a video) demonstrating both of these, as both guides are a combination of both.
- This guide is purely repetition for the first layer and last layer PLL (aside from solving the first last layer edge with AUF), but case-by-case for the second layer and (2-Look) OLL.
- This guide is purely case-by-case for the first layer (aside from page 4, which can be ignored . . . it's a more condensed and more generalized way of repetition for the first layer edges . . . I improved it in the first guide I listed so you can ignore it), the second layer, and (2-look) OLL. But like my first guide mentioned, purely repetition for last layer PLL (aside from solving the first last layer edge with AUF).
The repetition looks to be a lot of moves, but it's not as many moves as you think, because if it takes 10 repetitions to place one edge, it's most likely not going to take 9 repetitions to place the next edge (or vice versa). But yes, it's a lot of moves, but it's the same moves being repeated, so it's actually
less moves to the beginner's mind, in my opinion, versus case-by-case where it would take them dozens of solves to actually experience all of the moves -- which could make the case that they can solve one scramble, but mess up on the next. (
Repetition is literally the same for every scramble.)
And obviously, although case-by-case requires far fewer moves, it requires locating pieces (which
again, can easily cause the beginner cubist
and the cube to become disoriented in the process). Repetition (at this level) requires literally no piece locating. Just "doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results" (which actually is true in this case, because I used the mathematics of permutation cycles to guarantee it to work out to solve the first layer edges and corners this way)!
