Cubing FAQ
When people see me solving my Rubik's cube, there's a standard battery of responses, which I'd like to address.
"I just took the stickers off."/"I just took the pieces apart."
Every cuber has heard this a million times. It's kind of terrifying to me that everyone says it in earnest as something they thought was a novel solution.
"The world record is _____."
These statements are invariably wrong. As of this writing, the competition record for a single solve is 5.55s, by Mats Valk, and 6.54s average of 5, by Feliks Zemdegs.
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/regions.php
"You must be really smart."/"I'm not smart enough to do that."
I may or may not be really smart. I like to think of myself as fairly smart. This has nothing to do with my ability to solve a Rubik's cube, and doesn't even have anything to do with my ability to solve it pretty quickly.
What isn't smart is thinking that people who can do something or other have some kind of magic talent, instead of having gotten there by putting in work. You can learn to do almost anything you've seen anyone else do. Give yourself more credit for your potential, and give them more credit for their efforts.
"There must be some kind of trick."
This can be in response to doing it at all, or doing it quickly. There isn't a trick.
With regards to solving it at all, there are methods and techniques that all amount to some variation of put some pieces in place to reduce the problem, and then don't disturb them while you manipulate the other pieces into place. This is basic reductive problem solving.
With regards to doing it quickly, there isn't a trick the same way there isn't a trick for racing pit crews who change tires really fast. They've practiced doing it a ton of times, so they don't have to think about it at each step. They also have awesome power tools.
"You just have to memorize some patterns."
This one isn't actually that common, but Crystal says it all the time, and it kind of pisses me off, because she never learned to solve a cube, so she's not qualified to talk about what it takes.
Different methods have varying degrees of intuitive manipulation. The way they generally work is that you have some goal state for each step.
e.g. For the Roux method, which I use, you start by solving a 1x2x3 block on the left side of the cube. How you solve it is totally open ended. There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible starting states. You won't get there by rote memorization. Instead, you understand some basic relationships between pieces, and learn to manipulate them by forming groups and moving the groups around, intuitively.
After that, you build the corresponding 1x2x3 block on the right side of the cube, which can now be done with only upward face (U) turns, vertical middle slice (M) turns, and vertical right slice (R) turns, which leaves the first block you made undisturbed.
For the third step, you orient and permute the corners on the U face, which is where rote memorization comes in. With the Roux method, there are 42 cases, which you can memorize an algorithm to solve, each, if you want. Or you can turn it into 2 steps and learn 9. Or you can just learn a basic 3 corner cycle, and learn 2 algs and do it in 3 steps. The difference between doing it in one step and doing it in 3 is probably on the order of 5 seconds.
The further you get in the solve, the more constrained the possibilities are, and the more you can rely on memorization of patterns, but those parts generally aren't even the majority of the solve, and to say that solving is just learning some patterns is just false.
"How can I learn to do that?"
Get yourself some good hardware. Top end cubes are like $16 and will last you thousands of solves if you're not too rough with them. This is like world record setting hardware for around the cost of 3 sandwiches. Cubing is a cheap hobby. Official Rubik's brand cubes turn like crap, and aren't really any cheaper. Avoid them like the plague. If you need a name drop, I'm currently using a Moyu Aolong v2.
Depending on the model, you may also want to get some lubricant.
That set will let you mix different weights to suit your preference, and will last you approximately forever. Stick to silicone without petroleum distillates, as those will dissolve your cube's plastic.
A good cube with proper tensions and lubrication will make it very easy to turn the faces of your cube by just flicking your fingers, without it being uncontrollable. Compared to official Rubik's brand cubes like you'll find at Target or something, which you have to wrench around with your wrist, you'll have a much better time practicing, with less fatigue, which leads to quicker progress.
Pick a speed method and hit the ground running with it. Popular ones these days are CFOP, Roux and ZZ. There are videos all over YouTube to get you started learning a method. I trust you can use the internet.
I'm particularly fond of Roux, because there's a relatively low need for memorization. I got to around 22 seconds with around 9 algorithms. At the highest levels, Roux has 42 corner algorithms, compared to the 57 orient last layer and 21 permute last layer algs needed for the more popular CFOP.
Lastly, ask for help when you get stuck. http://www.reddit.com/r/Cubers
I went through a long personal struggle to break sub-20, but it's because I'm an asshole.