# Worst Decision/ Idea you've ever had during your cubing career?



## Myachii (Dec 17, 2014)

After browsing through many reviews, I decided to buy a full size SS 7x7 instead of a Mini 7x7. Big mistake.
I can't get any better at it and the time it takes me to solve it has put me off 7x7 completely.
I'm getting a MoYu 7x7 for Christmas, but I've had to cope with this one for the best part of a year.

What bad ideas/decisions have you guys made regarding cubing? Did you buy a horrible cube, use Vaseline as a lubricant, or do anything that you regret?


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## TDM (Dec 17, 2014)

I regret switching to Roux so late.
Another thing that I'm now thinking was a bad idea was getting a SS 6x6 last Christmas. Last Ao5 I did I got 6 pops. I almost never use it.


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## Torch (Dec 17, 2014)

I tried to use superglue to fix a peeling sticker on my 7x7, and ended with two edges glued together. I had to stick a pair of scissors between the edges and twist really hard to separate them.


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## PenguinsDontFly (Dec 17, 2014)

Almost switched to zz.


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## Sa967St (Dec 17, 2014)

I never learned a good way of pairing edges on 4x4x4, and since I've been solving a 4x4x4 the same way for 7 years, I have trouble switching to Yau. 
I pair edges similarly on 5x5x5 (pretty much in whatever order I see them), but I don't think it hurts my times nearly as much as it does for 4x4x4.


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## Myachii (Dec 17, 2014)

TDM said:


> I regret switching to Roux so late.
> Another thing that I'm now thinking was a bad idea was getting a SS 6x6 last Christmas. Last Ao5 I did I got 6 pops. I almost never use it.



As a not-very-proud owner of a SS 6x6, I agree, which is why I'm also getting a MoYu version ASAP.


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## Chree (Dec 17, 2014)

Waiting so long to _really_ speedcube was a pretty big mistake. I've been cubing for nearly 9 years. But for the first 7 years, I never learned anything new, never bought anything but a Rubik's Brand (I have 5 [1 was lost]), and my times never went much below 30 seconds. I've been speedcubing for the last 2 years and now I'm a 16 second solver. Can only imagine where I'd be if I was serious about it this whole time.


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## Randomno (Dec 17, 2014)

I was talking to someone and putting my cube away, and tried to put it in my pocket without checking it would go in. It fell on the floor.


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## Hssandwich (Dec 17, 2014)

TDM said:


> I regret switching to Roux so late.
> Another thing that I'm now thinking was a bad idea was getting a SS 6x6 last Christmas. Last Ao5 I did I got 6 pops. I almost never use it.



Your using roux as your main method now?!

Also, bringing my cube into school. Too much attention and my main (a zhanchi at the time) kept popping when other people used it.


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## Ollie (Dec 17, 2014)

Leaving cubes out at competitions. Thieving little ships


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## ComputerGuy365 (Dec 17, 2014)

Neglecting other events so much when I had the chance to progress more...


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## GuRoux (Dec 17, 2014)

starting speedcubing so late.


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## XTowncuber (Dec 17, 2014)

Not being CN. I thought solving only one color was the cool thing that fast people did xD. Fortunately I realized my mistake in time to branch out to yellow.


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## bobthegiraffemonkey (Dec 17, 2014)

MBLD in comp once, picked up a cube I'd executed already had forgotten to twist corners on. That was what was meant to happen. I had actually twisted them already already, so I picked up a solved cube and ... yeah ...


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## Rocky0701 (Dec 17, 2014)

Not doing Roux when I started. Also, stripping out a screw of my mini SS 7x7 and now I can't get it out to do the dayan spring swap mod.


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## Andreaillest (Dec 17, 2014)

Been cubing for years now and I still too lazy to learn full OLL and New tricks. I should have learned them when I was younger, had more time on my hands and motivated.


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## ottozing (Dec 17, 2014)

Turning with my ring finger for OH. I doubt I'll ever get much faster than a 13.x official average simply because of how bad my turning style is.

Another bad one was using keyboard for 2x2 so much that I had to actually learn how to pick up a cube fast, which really held me back earlier the year, and I've only been able to get nice comp averages as of the last few months (At my last 3 comps alone I got 4 averages faster than my 1.96 former OcR, 3 of which were sub 1.9x and one of which would have been without a +2).

Overall I can't really complain though, since my progress has been fairly constant and I'm a pretty well rounded cuber now if I may say so myself.


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## CiaranBeahan (Dec 17, 2014)

Really should've learned blind when I was starting out, when I was 11 or 12.


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## Petro Leum (Dec 17, 2014)

not having learned lefty U2 doubleflick when i started and not having learned U2 and R2 doubleflicks when i started onehanded... its so ****ing hard now...

also, having used CFOP for way too long, the CFOp thinking still affects my blockbuilding today


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## qqwref (Dec 17, 2014)

Ollie said:


> Leaving cubes out at competitions. Thieving little ships


I was u-boat to say, you yacht to keep track of your puzzles if you want to be a destroyer of records. A lot of those frigate kids warship people like you, and will happily tanker cubes because they think it will be better than their junk. Canoe believe it?


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## LucidCuber (Dec 17, 2014)

Ollie said:


> Leaving cubes out at competitions. Thieving little ships



It's not really practical though to put everything away and carry your bag around with you at all times. Although fortunately I've never been a victim :/


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## PenguinsDontFly (Dec 17, 2014)

GuRoux said:


> starting speedcubing so late.



When did you start?


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## guysensei1 (Dec 17, 2014)

Not starting 6x6 earlier. My chances at NR are fading. I don't think I can get that fast by February.


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## DavidCip86 (Dec 17, 2014)

I wish I had practiced my left hand more, so that I could solve ambidextrously


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## JasonDL13 (Dec 17, 2014)

(MBLD) Staying on 2 cubes after I got 2/2. I was scared to do 3.

(2BLD) Learned orient-first, bad T-Perm method for 2x2. I rarely sub-1'd. Now, using OP and verbal memo, I can average 29.

(3BLD) Do my first solve without learning all of Old Pochmann, including parity. (Surprise: It was a DNF)

(General) Buy a Rubik's Clock, when I got it one of the knobs was jammed  I just wanted to try it blindfolded.

In the future I might regret not switching to another BLD method. I don't plan on learning M2. I'll learn TuRBo one day.


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## GuRoux (Dec 17, 2014)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> When did you start?



close to 2 years and one month ago.


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## Iggy (Dec 17, 2014)

Wasting my first year of competitive speedcubing on magics. And that was the year with the most Malaysian comps -_-


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## MirzaCubing (Dec 18, 2014)

Not being color neutral, and wasting so much practice time over the years (never tried to learn new things :/ )


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## Chree (Dec 18, 2014)

DavidCip86 said:


> I wish I had practiced my left hand more, so that I could solve ambidextrously



I actually wish I had NOT practiced with my left hand _as much_. I wanted to be full ambidextrous, and was for a while, but all the regrips cost me time, so now I focus on my right hand.


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## mark49152 (Dec 18, 2014)

qqwref said:


> I was u-boat to say, you yacht to keep track of your puzzles if you want to be a destroyer of records. A lot of those frigate kids warship people like you, and will happily tanker cubes because they think it will be better than their junk. Canoe believe it?


Haha, ferry funny!


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## penguinz7 (Dec 18, 2014)

Convincing my parents to buy me a crappy shengshou 6x6 for my birthday, two weeks before the moyu one came out.


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## mDiPalma (Dec 18, 2014)

all those dumb PCMS algs

ugggghhh


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## grel1234 (Dec 18, 2014)

Deciding to wash my very first cube's core with soap because it seemed a little dirty. Bad decision.


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## CubeToast (Dec 18, 2014)

"I'm going to buy a Rubik's Brand 4x4 for $20, because how bad can it be? It can't be as bad as people say it is."
I was sure wrong. Turning was painful, and being the stupid curious person I am wondering about the mechanism, I decide to pop an edge off. I didn't know about the new ridged anti-pop edges, so I broke a center piece and lost it. I then got a SS v5 for $7. It was awful.


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## natezach728 (Dec 18, 2014)

Buying a shengshou 4x4 v4 and then rush modding it. That was bad. Also, not practicing before Nisei Week 2014.


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## confusedcuber (Dec 18, 2014)

Started CN for my first week, then forced myself to white cross because i read it was better..


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## TraciAG (Dec 18, 2014)

CubeToast said:


> "I'm going to buy a Rubik's Brand 4x4 for $20, because how bad can it be? It can't be as bad as people say it is."
> I was sure wrong. Turning was painful, and being the stupid curious person I am wondering about the mechanism, I decide to pop an edge off. I didn't know about the new ridged anti-pop edges, so I broke a center piece and lost it. I then got a SS v5 for $7. It was awful.



I'm sorry for your wallet but this made me laugh out loud


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## waffle=ijm (Dec 18, 2014)

Probably getting used to white cubes. I wish I stuck with black cubes since I can't see the dirt build up. nowadays I can't even bring my black cube times down to my white cube times.


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## GuRoux (Dec 18, 2014)

waffle=ijm said:


> Probably getting used to white cubes. I wish I stuck with black cubes since I can't see the dirt build up. nowadays I can't even bring my black cube times down to my white cube times.



you can still see the dirt build up pretty easily


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## waffle=ijm (Dec 18, 2014)

GuRoux said:


> you can still see the dirt build up pretty easily



but it's not as bad as white cubes. especially around the stickers. Disgusting.


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## GuRoux (Dec 18, 2014)

waffle=ijm said:


> but it's not as bad as white cubes. especially around the stickers. Disgusting.



oh, didn't know anything about around the stickers. well, at least you know when your cube is dirty. us black cubers are in the igonrance bliss thing.


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## megaminxwin (Dec 18, 2014)

Two years ago I wanted to be the best in the world at magic, so I practised incessantly. I quit cubing after I discovered that magic was being removed. Seriously.


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## Genesis (Dec 18, 2014)

I wish I had a single worst one, but its hard to find which is the top....
Not starting speedsolving earlier, not continuing to practice after getting 7x7 and skewb nr(No chance of retaining them now), not learning full OLL despite cubing for like 8 years?


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## brian724080 (Dec 18, 2014)

Starting out with CFOP


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## lorki3 (Dec 18, 2014)

only learning ZZ now. I wish i had learnes it years ago, but I hadn't heard of it until nowv


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## Cale S (Dec 18, 2014)

Not using F2L and 4LLL until a year after I started. Until last winter I used LBL for F2L and a stupid LL method (orient edges, permute edges with sunes, permute corners with niklas, orient corners with R' D' R D) and I averaged 30-35. Once I learned F2L and 2-look OLL and PLL I got an official 20.88 average within 3 months (first comp, March 29). A few months later I got my average down to 17.
Also, I've used regular reduction on 4x4 for so long that I think switching to Yau at this point would just slow me down.


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## Logiqx (Dec 18, 2014)

confusedcuber said:


> Started CN for my first week, then forced myself to white cross because i read it was better..



I was the same but I decided to switch back to CN when I was averaging around 40s.


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## Aussie (Dec 18, 2014)

Probably practicing 6x6 for about 3 months without any 3x3 practice at all. Once I got back to the 3x3 and learned CFOP, I got a lot faster at the 3x3 stage. I just wish I decided to go to CFOP before Nationals.


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## TDM (Dec 18, 2014)

Hssandwich said:


> Your using roux as your main method now?!


I think so? I also practise ZZ/CFOP. I'm fastest with CFOP (13.5), then ZZ (16), then Roux (16.5-17.5). But I practise Roux the most.


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## tomatotrucks (Dec 18, 2014)

Not practising look ahead when I was 20 - 30 seconds. Now I'm ~17 and my look ahead is terrible, and when I try to practise it I get sup 20 times and get discouraged


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## Dene (Dec 18, 2014)

The worst idea I ever had was that I might be a top cuber at some event. Now I've wasted more than 7 years of my life and achieved nothing.


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## Artic (Dec 18, 2014)

TDM said:


> I think so? I also practise ZZ/CFOP. I'm fastest with CFOP (13.5), then ZZ (16), then Roux (16.5-17.5). But I practise Roux the most.



ZZ is the most elegant and beautiful of the 3 major methods. It should be much more popular than it currently is. How do you like ZZ?


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## PixelWizard (Dec 18, 2014)

DNF in First Official Solve -.-

I also regret, that I didn't started cubing when I was younger...


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## ryanj92 (Dec 18, 2014)

Choosing awkward to turn puzzles as the ones I want to get good at... I get shaky in comps and get bad averages because I can't turn 
I'm practising 5x5x5 a lot now though, so I guess I'm learning


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## AlexMaass (Dec 18, 2014)

not having a good style solving pyraminx tips, I just solve them all at once at the end

found out how bad my tips were, and did a like casual 3.27 avg of 12 without tips.

gonna be hard to change my hard wired style

fml


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## pdilla (Dec 18, 2014)

Being content with sub 20 for so long.
I've been cubing for nearly 6 years now and am barely sub-15 on average.


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## guysensei1 (Dec 18, 2014)

ottozing said:


> Turning with my ring finger for OH. I doubt I'll ever get much faster than a 13.x official average simply because of how bad my turning style is.



Has it actually been shown that ring finger turning is slower? As a person who recently switched to pinky, I find that certain tricks are harder to do. Like the R2/L2 double flick now has this awkward regrip on it and F/F' moves with thumb now are harder to do whereas on ring finger turning it feels like there is more support. Maybe it's just that I'm not used to it but I feel like I could turn at the same speed with ring or pinky.


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## ~Adam~ (Dec 18, 2014)

Switching to white cross when I learnt F2L from CN (thanks LTBK).

Us with left thumb.

Learnt OLL and PLL ~ 2 months then stopped learning algs.


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## Escher (Dec 18, 2014)

Not being CN hurts me real bad whenever I think too hard about it.

And also stopping practising 2 years ago. Can still get 8.6-8.8ish averages of 12 whenever I do 40-50 solve sessions, that could be like 7.2ish if I just hadn't stopped ;_;


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## Username (Dec 18, 2014)

I regret stopping color neutrality


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## TDM (Dec 18, 2014)

Artic said:


> ZZ is the most elegant and beautiful of the 3 major methods. It should be much more popular than it currently is. How do you like ZZ?


I prefer Roux  I like ZZ because it's nice to always have oriented edges for LS+LL, which means you can do lots of stuff like WV/COLL etc. My LL is slow, ZZ makes it look faster.


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## the super cuber (Dec 18, 2014)

I regret not continuing colour neutrality when I switched from beginners method to cfop, and also when I bought a ridge less megaminx intead of the ridged one.


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## Ingo (Dec 18, 2014)

My worst idea was modding a SS 4x4. I tried to do it well and it was so much work, but the results were so disappointing.


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## charmrence (Dec 18, 2014)

Not learning CFOP when I started cubing. I used the Dan Brown method for a year, practicing only very casually. I stopped cubing until college, and now I only have little time to practice. I wish I could have started cubing seriously when I still was in grade school and had all day to practice.


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## rowehessler (Dec 18, 2014)

many regrets in my cubing career,
1. not having a 3x3 WR, my timing was terrible. I think if I switched to CFOP i little earlier and didn't rely on turn speed rather than lookahead, I may have been able to at least get average WR before Feliks came along
2. wasting so much time on BLD when I could have been getting better at speedsolving 
3. not getting a third US title, had so many chances
4. using ring finger for OH instead of pinky, later on it was impossible to switch, and once the WR times got below 14 second, I couldn't keep up.
5. Not switching to yau for 4x4 earlier.
6. Caring so much about my results instead of just having a good time with friends.

These aren't really decisions/ideas, but whatever


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## Artic (Dec 18, 2014)

rowehessler said:


> many regrets in my cubing career,
> 1. not having a 3x3 WR, my timing was terrible. *I think if I switched to CFOP i little earlier* and didn't rely on turn speed rather than lookahead, I may have been able to at least get average WR before Feliks came along
> 2. wasting so much time on BLD when I could have been getting better at speedsolving
> 3. not getting a third US title, had so many chances
> ...



What method were you using before?


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## Coolster01 (Dec 18, 2014)

Getting into feetsolving. Could've got fast at 2x2 earlier and beaten records easier possibly.


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## rowehessler (Dec 18, 2014)

Artic said:


> What method were you using before?


i was a CN petrus solver until I was around 20 seconds. after a month of CFOP i dropped to sub15


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## Robert-Y (Dec 18, 2014)

rowehessler said:


> 5. Not switching to yau for 4x4 earlier.



We've all been there...  (Summer 2012 was when I switched and actually started using it in official solves)


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## Deleted member 19792 (Dec 19, 2014)

joining cyoubx's friends


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## Coolster01 (Dec 19, 2014)

strakerak said:


> joining cyoubx's friends



You can leave. People will gladly accept that. Or were you already kicked?  XD


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## supercavitation (Dec 19, 2014)

Switching back to CFOP.


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## sneaklyfox (Dec 19, 2014)

Not really a decision but... wished I had known speedcubing was a thing at least ten years ago back when I had more time.


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## Toire-Dakku (Dec 19, 2014)

Not coming to worlds 2011. That seemed to be the most accessible WC for me EVER, and i don't think WC will be in asia for a long time again. 

This was because mid-2011 was actually one of the most depressing moments in speedcubing for me. (A close cuber friend of mine passed away. We were supposed to go to that WC together.) 
And around this point, I lost quite a number of records, and was about to graduate college thus having to shoulder more responsibilities. and somehow it made me think that it was time for me to stop speedcubing. 

But obviously i haven't stopped at all. And i'm still here )

To end on a lighter note, AC2014 was one of the happiest moments for me in speedcubing. I'm glad to have gone there, although I just wish more filipino cubers would have been able to go.


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## TraciAG (Dec 19, 2014)

I can't really think of anything...but I wish I didn't wait so long to learn Yau for 4x4. Now I have a lot of trouble with it. 

And I regret wasting all my money on 3x3s when I could've gotten multiple shape mods and other puzzle for the amount I spent on them.


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## MatejMuzatko (Dec 19, 2014)

Changing springs on SS mini 7x7 to Dayan and also scrapping the screw so I can't undo... It's so loose and weird feeling
Wasting lot's of Yau5 time on 7x7 by doing center by center and not ubercuber's way...


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## AlexTheEmperor (Dec 19, 2014)

Impulse purchasing a Rubiks 2x2 at a time when I was fairly new and had no other 2x2. 
It cost me 78 Danish Kroner from a shop called Magasin in Copenhagen. 
My hands were hurting from just using it on the way back to the flat, and when I got back, I remember feeling like the luckiest boy in the world when I went to my Zhanchi.


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## AlGoreRhythm (Dec 20, 2014)

This afternoon. I stood out in the rain waiting for my Aosu for an hour. I have no idea what I was thinking, except "Just 5 more minutes..." again and again and again....


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## rebucato314 (Dec 20, 2014)

Wish I didn't buy a Zhanchi and a sticker-less Gans 3 version 3 (Zhanchi had some wacky tensioning problems) (I want to use Gans 3 as my main after my first impressions but is was sticker-less)


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## bobthegiraffemonkey (Dec 20, 2014)

CoenRox36 said:


> its to hard to learn now lol



It's always been hard to learn since some of them are poorly named, but it's probably too late to change that. Then again, we now sort of have J/L for a pair or mirror cases, so some progress has been made.


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## theROUXbiksCube (Dec 20, 2014)

Starting with CFOP not Roux<3
Not being color neutral with Roux


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## ImnotHoneydew (Dec 20, 2014)

Hssandwich said:


> Also, bringing my cube into school. Too much attention...


I have to agree with that :/


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## Seanliu (Dec 21, 2014)

XTowncuber said:


> Not being CN. I thought solving only one color was the cool thing that fast people did xD. Fortunately I realized my mistake in time to branch out to yellow.


 Me too. I am trying as hard as I can to switch. The past 3 attempts have failed! But this one will not...


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## RedAgent14 (Dec 26, 2014)

CubeToast said:


> "I'm going to buy a Rubik's Brand 4x4 for $20, because how bad can it be? It can't be as bad as people say it is."
> I was sure wrong. Turning was painful, and being the stupid curious person I am wondering about the mechanism, I decide to pop an edge off. I didn't know about the new ridged anti-pop edges, so I broke a center piece and lost it.



Almost exact same thing happened to me, except I broke 3 different center pieces (1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow). The red and orange ones I lost, and the yellow one is superglued together.
In addition, I decided to get a replacement 4x4x4 (moyu aosu). Ordered it back in late November, usps only started tracking it (STILL hasn't shipped) 3 days ago.


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## ZamHalen (Dec 26, 2014)

Picking up cubing.


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## maps600 (Dec 26, 2014)

1) Not being full colorneutral from the start.
2) Learning full OLL so late.
3) Procrastinating on schoolwork so I could cube, but if I did my schoolwork first I would actually have had more time.


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## Berd (Dec 26, 2014)

ZamHalen said:


> Picking up cubing.


This.


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## goodatthis (Dec 27, 2014)

qqwref said:


> I was u-boat to say, you yacht to keep track of your puzzles if you want to be a destroyer of records. A lot of those frigate kids warship people like you, and will happily tanker cubes because they think it will be better than their junk. Canoe believe it?


This is honestly the best post ever written.


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