What has learning how to solve Rubik’s cube taught me?

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to solve a Rubik’s cube. I thought it was a one-time thing when you keep trying to solve and eventually one day it will happen. Obviously, I was wrong. Solving a Rubik’s cube is essentially like implementing an algorithm. It is very pragmatic. It is a skill you can acquire if you put your heart into it. Just like any other skill.

My friend and colleague Shabbir taught me how to solve the cube. It was a week-long course where he taught me one step every day and I would practice that step for the rest of the day and then move to the next step. It was super fun. And since then I have been solving the cube once every day to improve my speed and efficiency. The fastest I remember solving it was at 2 minutes 15 seconds. And I plan to keep improving that score.

This blog is not about how to solve the Rubik’s cube. Although I would love to teach you guys someday and write about it. This blog is about what life lessons I have learned along the way. Here is what learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube has taught me –

1. The Thrill of learning a new skill.

There is no parallel to the thrill you get when you learn a new skill. You become a child again, trying to understand the mechanics of it or the logic behind it. Especially when you have been wanting to learn that skill for such a long time. The joy I felt when I matched the first side of the cube was similar to when I first realized I could balance a bicycle without support. It was an adrenaline rush. Imagine if you could have that rush, that feeling of thrill every day of your life as you keep learning new skills! It is at that moment that you realize that learning the skill gives you far greater joy than showing off your skills a few years later.

2. You have to do the work.

There is no shortcut. You cannot avoid the grind. If you want to learn something, you have to do the work. And it has to be deep, dedicated work. Doing something on the side while learning a new skill won’t work. And I love that because I have always been a single-task person. The other thing I love about learning a new skill is that you can only cheat yourself (unless you are working with a trainer or a friend). If you are not giving your 100%, you will know immediately.

3. Practice makes perfect.

This is an extension of #2. But it is also different. Many times you learn a skill but you don’t practice it enough. And when you return back to it a few years later, you realize that you have lost that skill. And that can be heart-breaking. You have to keep practicing the skill until it becomes muscle memory. And then you practice some more. Since the day I learned all the steps of solving the Rubik’s cube, I have been practicing every single day. During zoom calls, or while watching brainless television, you will find the cube in my hands. And that is how I could bring my solve time down from 15+ minutes to under 3 minutes. And I still feel I am far from perfect.

4. Complicated problems are solvable.

Rubik’s cube seems a very complicated thing to solve. Until you break it into smaller problems and you solve each problem one by one. That is a life lesson I will carry and implement every time I face a complicated problem. All problems are solvable no matter how complicated. You just need to break it down into steps. And treat each step as a problem in itself. And solve that.

5. You truly understand something when you can teach it.

Albert Einstein famously said, “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year old, you don’t understand it yourself”. I truly believe in that. So, I tried to teach my brother how to solve the cube. And it was my test of understanding and patience. My brother picked it up in a day (it took me 7 days). I think that is more a testament to his learning skills than my teaching skills. My point being, if you want to test your newly acquired skills, teach them to someone else. You will then figure out if you truly understand them.

6. There is always room for optimization.

Once you master a technique, you can then find how to optimize it or learn an alternative way to do the task at hand. This stage can only be achieved if you have done #1-5. You now have the liberty of time. You are not bogged down by the problem itself. You know it is solvable. So, you can now find ways to reduce time, break the routine with an alternative approach or just have fun with it. After I learned how to solve the cube, I found that there are probably hundreds of different ways than I didn’t know. And that is exciting! Just like that, in life, there is always room for optimization.

How do I solve a Rubik’s cube?

Ok, now that I have gone about trying to explain the life lessons I have learned while learning the skill of solving a Rubik’s cube, let me show you the technique I know. This is probably not the most optimized. And I will probably write a new blog explaining (or teaching) it, here is a high-level step guide if you want to take the plunge –

1. Make the Daisy
2. Create the white cross
3. Solve the bottom layer
4. Solve the middle layer
5. Create the Yellow cross
6. Align the top-layer center-pieces
7. Solve the top layer. I call this step chaos before the resolution because it looks like you undo all the previous hard work you have done. I wrote a short story about it here.

What skills have you acquired recently? And what life lessons did it teach you? Do let me know in the comments below. And if you are interested in productivity or finance blogs, do check my other posts on those categories.