Yes. I took it apart and then put it back together solved

Back in the 80s, before they even had books with the solution (the Internet? What's that?), my Dad quit smoking using a Rubik's Cube.

Getting rid of the nicotine habit takes about 3 weeks to flush it from your system, but smokers are still left with lots of hand-mouth habits that all quitters will tell you is the most difficult thing to overcome. My Dad was a pipe smoker (that was a thing back then), which required a lot of ritualistic behavior, opening the tobacco bag, stuffing the pipe, relighting it with every puff, etc. Lots more than just just pulling out a coffin nail and lighting it.

So to fight the physical habits, he would just pick up his Rubik's Cube, and try to solve it. He didn't just play with it, though, he got analytical about it, writing down moves and steps, and eventually putting together his own cheat guide, before anyone had published one. We didn't think of it at the time, but he could have tightened it up, and probably sold it to a publisher.

I'm any case, it worked. By the time he had solved the Cube, he no longer had the urge to smoke.

looked up the algorithm

Yes, by looking up how to do it and then practicing until I could actually implement the instructions.

That Rubik himself figured it out with no guide is impressive as hell.

Yes. I looked up algorithms for the last layer. After a few solves it stuck in muscle memory.

The first solves took a good while, but I was getting consistently under a minute after a week.

I haven't speedcubed in quite a few years, but I spin the 4x4x4 a few times a week to keep those parity problems in muscle memory.

Jperm has great beginner method videos on YouTube. Learned how to solve the 3x3 last year practicing side by side with that video for an hour or so for approx 3 days.

I just solved the 12 sided megaminx a few days ago for the first time. It's addicting lol

Yes. I got two for my oldest children as Easter gifts. They scrambled them and after a few minutes of frustration, left them lying on the floor.

I encourage them to keep trying to solve them but they told me " what chance do I have if you can't even do it?" I thought about it and realized that they were right.

I downloaded a PDF of a Rubik's beginner guide I found online and solved it in about an hour. I felt like I had conquered the world!

While bragging to my wife I saw my youngest scrambling it again and my heart sank. My wife saw my reaction and said "what's the big deal? Don't you know how to do it now?"

I explained that I had essentially cheated, but had to admit that the steps weren't as hard as I had imagined. I decided then and there that I was going to learn and eventually memorized the beginner method!

After getting a speed cube and lots of practice, I started averaging about 2 mins. After watching some videos online I decided to give the CFOP method a try. It felt like starting over but I was patient and now I can do it in close to 30sec.

I had one as a kid, and it came with a little booklet that showed the series of moves to move pieces around. This definitely wasn't the fastest way to solve, but it worked.

I remember it said to solve the top layer first, then align that with the correct "center" cubes on the second/middle layer. Then you'd get the "edges" of the second/middle layer in place using the series of moves. For the bottom, there was another couple sets of moves.

I dismantled it and rebuilt it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ron6MN45LY

I was super into them as a teenager, learned to solve the usual 3x3 and even bigger the usual way, i.e. mostly by memorising a bunch of algorithms (tonnes of "beginner" tutorials out there). After not touching them for over a decade I was disappointed that I had forgotten most of how to do it! Now I've re-learned and finding a way that relies on understanding or intuition so that I don't have to worry about algorithms or memorisation, I feel like this is a much nicer way to learn to do it!

I read this book, published in 1981.

tl;dr - kid on skiing holiday, broke his hand, spent two weeks figuring out the cube, wrote book.

No, it confounds me how they even move how they do.

Yes. With my hands, Bert. I solved it with my hands.

I watched one of my brothers once just start removing the stickers. That’s pretty much how that went.

I learned on the internet 15-20 years ago or so. I've also done 5x5 and 4x4 they aren't really much harder, I didn't need additional info, but when I hit the parity problem on the 4x4 I just scrambled and tried again. I mean they are harder, but not astronomically harder.

My almost 8 year old is obsessed. I went through how to do a 3x3, and wrote out the steps and he has copied my instructions into a notebook. He can do it in 3 and a half minutes with his notes. He hasn't managed without his notes yet but he has only been learning since Valentine's day. He just woke me up looking for his notebook.

Earlier this week I met somebody that did a Rubik's cube independently in the 80s. (My son's classmates grampa).

I had one when I was a kid, best I could do was 1 side..

Yes! Like this: https://lar5.com/cube/

Yes, you make the cubes go together until it looks nice.

No, I cheated. I figured out that it needs to be solved in layers, and figured out how to solve the first two layers,but could never figure out how to solve the top one. Eventually I looked up how to solve it and reproduced the movements. I can put it in order now, but I wouldn't say I solved it since I'm doing movements someone taught me not that I figured myself out.

Yes, I got to it during COVID times and went from 1:30 (hour) to 30 sec in a few weeks. I learned by following this excellent tutorial from Wired : a great communicator explains the little he knows. That's far more effective than the usual expert cube-head (I've become one of them) trying to convey anything. Wired video

Easily thousands of times. I learned back in high school, on a forum that went on to be a very fondly remembered element of my teenage years.

It's really not that hard if you can memorize a few algorithms. I learned a very basic set of general algorithms, like half a dozen. Not very efficient, but easy to learn and I can still solve one in about a minute.

If you want to get into proper speed cubing you can learn dozens, or even hundreds, of increasingly specific algorithms. This, combined with a high quality cube and finger tricks, can get you closer to 10 seconds.

But if you just want to be able to solve one, you can learn in an afternoon.

Mathologer (YouTube did a good explanation of creating cube algorithms). Search something like: mathologer design rubiks algorithm

The only winning move is not to play.

Remove the stickers and replace them in the solved pattern. 😤

Just in case you want an answer from a stupid person:

3x3 you solve by trying to match opposite sides. Like, work on 2 colors at once then move on to another pair.

Any size bigger than that you have to a start learning math because they can be put into states where it's impossible to disentangle certain pieces without following exact moves.

There are many good methods. They aren’t hard to learn as long as you can memorize a few 7-10 move algorithms.

For people recommending using screwdrivers and sticker peeling, they’re actually much easier than that to disassemble and reassemble. Turn one face 45 deg. Pop an edge up. The whole thing will fall apart. Tougher to assemble but not too bad. Only problem is you have a 2/3 change to accidentally assemble an unsolvable corner rotation and a 50% chance to assemble an unsolvable edge flip. Both are easily fixed if you can spot it by flipping any edge and rotating any corners once or twice as needed, but then if you’re able to spot it, you already know that.

I was able to solve the first two layers of the cube when I was around 5 (I found it in the toy chest at my grandmother’s and spent the entire trip working on it)

A long time later, in highschool, I bought one and tried to solve the whole thing myself. After a couple days I gave in and looked up how to do the last bit.

Once you learn the steps it’s hard to forget them and it’s surprisingly easy to generalize them for other sizes/shapes of cubes.

In true billionaire style, I paid someone else to do it and then took credit since it was my money that made it possible.

yes.

peel and stick the colored stickers where they belong.

I saw a video of a 3-year-old kid doing it, and I figured I'm at least as smart as a baby.

Used to be one of the kids who knew how back in grade school. I read a book and memorized patterns.

Yes, 3x3 and 4x4... I think I grew old of it and never tried 5x5... maybe I should try it again and do up to like 7x7 or something lol

I think... not sure... but I think I had those in China too, but I never had internet to look it up so it was never solved... so it just existed in a perpetual state of chaos... just like my life 🙃

I think I had at least 2 more 3x3 cubes in NYC... but either that's before I got internet or somehow I never thought of looking it up.

I remember this one time... was either birthday or christmas or some sort of holiday... my mom got me a 3x3 cube... and like I think I asked for it some time ago... that was the only special "gift moment" that I thought was most memorable... cuz I rarely get what I ask for lol, I remember being in some store asking for legos or something... cuz I think I saw classmates have it, and I asked mom to get those, and nope rejected cuz "these are boring and expensive", I remember asking for Battleships so I could play with my older brother and she got the cheaper knockoff version 🙃

I mean my classmates have fucking Nintendo DSes but I get born to a poor family :( so yea I had low self esteem from feeling ashames of being poor and coupled with the lack of confidence in English and the anxiety of "not feelint like I belong, I didn't have much friends...

I remember when I got that 3x3 (not my first one btw, I got like probably 2 or more 3x3s before) I was at that greyhound-like bus stop waiting for the bus to go back to Philly after vising NYC for some reason? (Visiting relative maybe? Forgot lol) So mom was like "hey guess what I got you" and pulls out the 3x3 cube in the original packaging... I think I felt hapoy in that moment. I tried to use her phone to look it up but the data was so shit it keeps taking forever to load and never loaded I think I tried looking up non-video instruxtions so it loads faster but I think it was too confusing to follow, and so I think I had to wait till I get home to look up the youtube video (memory's all a blur forgot how exactly it went down)... I think at one time I got so frustrated I took it apart to reassemble it xD.

Then later I got the 4x4 and solved that too.

I remember bringing it to school and then someone else (who's so Chinese American) also brought their cube... I think it was in middle school like 8th grade or something... I played with it during class and teacher casually walks up and like "lemme have that" and confiscated both of our cubes for the duration of class lol. Math class btw... very fitting to be playing with rubick's cubes...

i have, and lots of other twisty puzzles to boot. my PB on the 3x3 was around 30 seconds i think, back when i practiced more. there's lots of relatively simple algorithms you can learn to solve it.

Yes. With a screwdriver.

Without ~~cheating~~ improvising? Nope.

No, I never had the patience to figure it out. I think I’ve seen a video or two with solution algorithms but did not have access to a cube to try them and don’t really remember the ways now.

There was a website where you could enter the “pattern” you had and it would give you step-by-step instructions… My mate’s kids used to go to bed with scrambled cubes and every morning wake up to it solved. They thought their father was a cube savant.

Looked up the solution and memorized it. I may be slightly above average intelligence, but nowhere near gifted.