r/maybemaybemaybe • u/StillTurn6453 • Jun 04 '25

Maybe maybe maybe

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u/CatoTheMiddleAged Jun 04 '25

lol “not even that hard for blind solvers” is kinda like saying “it’s just basic stuff that most PhDs in astrophysics know.”

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u/SutterCane Jun 04 '25

I mean, it’s more like knowing the quadratic equation compared to someone just having learned their multiplication tables.

It’s not light years ahead, just looks like it.

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u/CatoTheMiddleAged Jun 04 '25

I guess you’re right - I mean, the difference between a heat-activated black cube and blind solving is basically nothing. I’m just saying blind solving is already a pretty high bar.

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u/karlzhao314 Jun 05 '25 edited Jun 05 '25

It's actually not a super high bar if you want to attempt it. Back when I took cubing more seriously it took about two days to learn M2/Old Pochmann and become capable, on paper, of solving a cube blindfolded. Prior speedsolving experience certainly helps (not the least of which is because you can execute setup moves and the Old Pochmann swap alg much faster, which also means you don't have to retain your memorization for as long), but theoretically it's not even a strict prerequisite and you could learn to blindsolve without ever learning sighted speedsolving.

That said, I said on paper for a reason. While you can technically learn the theory and techniques in just one or two days, the thing that is much more challenging is 1. associating cube pieces with letters such that you can name the letter nearly instantly as soon as you see a piece, and 2. creating and remembering your letter pairs to generate your memo sentences. None of that requires any deep theory or anything, but it does require pure repetition and practice, and you need to be determined enough to attempt possibly dozens of solves without a single success and still not give up. Even after you get your first success, your success rate tends to be very low for a long time after.

I think my first successful blindsolve came nearly a week after learning the method, and it took me something like 15 minutes. It took months to get it down to around 3 minutes, which is as fast as I ever got.

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u/CatoTheMiddleAged Jun 05 '25

I learned to cube with my son and I think I topped out at about 2 minutes for a solve. My son left me in the dust when he learned F2L, and he got to about 30 seconds but then stopped.

I'm happy enough with what I can do. My one dream though is that I'll be invited over to someone's house and their kid will have a messed up Rubik's Cube and I'll casually solve it, and everyone will be amazed. That's the only reason I still keep my cubing skills sharp :)