# Real Life Benefits of Speedsolving?



## NottNott (Jan 19, 2014)

Even in my fragile state of only having a single week under my belt, I'm already starting to notice the exponential benefits speedcubing has had on me, namely faster reaction times. 

Has anyone else had similar benefits because of speedsolving?


----------



## BillyRain (Jan 19, 2014)

Drunk girls love it.


----------



## Jaysammey777 (Jan 19, 2014)

Sober girls love it.


----------



## BillyRain (Jan 19, 2014)

Jaysammey777 said:


> Sober girls love it.



Depends what kind of girls you are aiming at!

Mind you, my gf wasn't drunk when I met her.. But then again she was already a cuber


----------



## Jaysammey777 (Jan 19, 2014)

BillyRain said:


> Depends what kind of girls you are aiming at!
> 
> Mind you, my gf wasn't drunk when I met her.. But then again she was already a cuber



From the cheer captain to the band's drum major, they all love it... granted every girl I've ever dated said that they thought cubes were annoying..


----------



## Tao Yu (Jan 19, 2014)

It's great for passing time in airports and waiting rooms etc.


----------



## CHJ (Jan 19, 2014)

You don't have to worry about sunspots because you sit in all day and have nice pale skin, you get to talk to other loners on the internet who have nothing better to do with their lives and you loose contact with your family and friends if you had any......

.........owait was that just me?


----------



## Phillip1847 (Jan 19, 2014)

Definitely just you.

I agree with Tao, the time "wasting" ability is priceless.


----------



## kcl (Jan 19, 2014)

It allows me to pass hours and hours on end, and it lets me have fun while doing it. Beats TV for sure.


----------



## BoBoGuy (Jan 19, 2014)

Reflexes are great. Plus, cubing is like an asian video game (I'm Korean)


----------



## TDM (Jan 19, 2014)

CHJ said:


> You don't have to worry about sunspots because you sit in all day and have nice pale skin, you get to talk to other loners on the internet who have nothing better to do with their lives and you loose contact with your family and friends if you had any......
> 
> .........owait was that just me?


Nope, it's not just you.

I also agree that it's something fun you can do where there's nothing else to do, and you can do it anywhere.


----------



## Renslay (Jan 19, 2014)

You'll going to think about combinatorial mathematics in a new perspective.


----------



## Cubiquitous (Jan 19, 2014)

One thing I have noticed, is that I can solve one handed with my left or right somewhat equally. So, perhaps speed cubing promotes ambidexterity. I heard activities that promote ambidexterity can help with dyslexia.


----------



## TDM (Jan 19, 2014)

Cubiquitous said:


> One thing I have noticed, is that I can solve one handed with my left or right somewhat equally. So, perhaps speed cubing promotes ambidexterity. I heard activities that promote ambidexterity can help with dyslexia.


Depends on which algs you use; if you use a lot more R than L that may not happen. Also, if you use Roux, then your right hand will probably become much better, because the second block is mostly *Rr*U, but if you use ZZ, your hands are more likely to be equal, because F2L is RUL.


----------



## Jaysammey777 (Jan 19, 2014)

TDM said:


> Depends on which algs you use; if you use a lot more R than L that may not happen. Also, if you use Roux, then your right hand will probably become much better, because the second block is mostly *Rr*U, but if you use ZZ, your hands are more likely to be equal, because F2L is RUL.



I believe that people who use ZZ for one handed put the line on the left, solve the 1x2x3 using U R and D. than do a z' and solve the rest


----------



## Rnewms (Jan 20, 2014)

I've made many friends as a result. Those whom I have not befriended still recognize the "Rubik's cube guy"


----------



## Machine (Jan 28, 2014)

I work fulltime as a bouncer and some of the days (like in the middle of the week etc) there is almost no people the entire night. I always have my cube with me, and what i noticed that it is quite a bit of an "ice breaker". 
What i mean by that is that almost everybody that passes by, comments the fact of me solving cube in one way or another. The standar reactions are : 

" wow, a smart bouncer!" 
"can you actually solve it?" 
" i can do it faster" - and then they cant do it at all -.- 
"have you seen that movie with will smith?" 
"you're a freakin' genius you, you should be working in an office instead" 

etc etc 

What i am trying to say is that, even tho not all the comments are exactly positive, there is hardly ever someone that just goes by and doesn't say anything  



This is my first post on this forum btw, so HI EVERYONE


----------



## Mollerz (Jan 28, 2014)

Rnewms said:


> "Rubik's cube guy"



Yeah, I know this feel.


----------



## brian724080 (Jan 28, 2014)

Jaysammey777 said:


> I believe that people who use ZZ for one handed put the line on the left, solve the 1x2x3 using U R and D. than do a z' and solve the rest



I solve EOLine on the bottom, and use [L, R, U] to solve F2L.



Rnewms said:


> I've made many friends as a result. Those whom I have not befriended still recognize the "Rubik's cube guy"



Don't know about you, but I've found that really annoying after a while.

Talking about reaction times, one time I was solving a 5x5 and the cube flew out of my hand. Somehow I made the turn mid-air and caught the cube.


----------



## Logi (Jan 28, 2014)

I was playing a card game called speed with my friend. It's based on reaction time. And I TOTALY OWNED.


----------



## kcl (Jan 28, 2014)

Logi said:


> I was playing a card game called speed with my friend. It's based on reaction time. And I TOTALY OWNED.



Hahaha that's awesome.


That happened to me in this game called Egyptian Rat slap or something. Apparently I'm really good at it because reflexes


----------



## Mikel (Jan 28, 2014)

kclejeune said:


> Hahaha that's awesome



You are right, isn't that awesome!?


----------



## kcl (Jan 28, 2014)

Mikel said:


> You are right, isn't that awesome!?



I can tell this is _definitely_ not sarcastic in the slightest. 

I do have a few though. 

Cubing has made me more ambidextrous. 

I remember things a lot faster now. 

And.. Third would probably be that it makes me keep my fingernails trimmed. I don't care how stupid it sounds, I hate long nails. Now I can't forget since they start to hurt.


----------



## Mikel (Jan 28, 2014)

kclejeune said:


> And.. Third would probably be that it makes me keep my fingernails trimmed. I don't care how stupid it sounds, I hate long nails. Now I can't forget since they start to hurt.



I rarely trim my fingernails. Once every year maybe? I do peel them though. It's kind of a habit for me to do so.


----------



## Bindedsa (Jan 29, 2014)

brian724080 said:


> I solve EOLine on the bottom, and use [L, R, U] to solve F2L.



How? All OH cubers that I've seen (Including me), Do a Z rotation for LU F2L Pairs?


----------



## kunparekh18 (Jan 29, 2014)

Bindedsa said:


> How? All OH cubers that I've seen (Including me), Do a Z rotation for LU F2L Pairs?



I don't do a full Z rotation, but something halfway through one. I use CFOP, btw.


----------



## cc9tough (Jan 29, 2014)

If you practice blind even a little you will see great improvements in your overall memory. ( or at least I did)


----------



## vigr0728 (Jan 29, 2014)

I'm a pianist. I have noticed a significant increase in the speed I play (Helps in practicing faster pieces easily) I'm not entirely sure it's because of speedcubing but I stopped playing piano for a while, played again and that was the result. Cubing was the one thing I did in the break from playing the piano so I'm guessing it is because of cubing.


----------



## Andreaillest (Jan 29, 2014)

Drunk people strolling through a Las Vegas hotel lobby in the late night might give you $40.


----------



## Yes We Can! (Jan 29, 2014)

Jobs. I've gotten hired for like 10 different gigs over the years (product promotions, exhibition openings, eye-catcher at conventions) and the pay has definitely been way better than for normal occupations that a 15 - 18-year-old with no job experience can do.
Different but maybe also useful: Official accomplishments can't look all that bad on a CV. 

Travel and people. I've met so many new people at competitions. I got to go to Hungary and Poland for Euro and Worlds in the US for free and I could never have afforded it myself.

I also think cubing may have helped finger dexterity with my guitar playing.

EDIT: Oh and once I started BLD, I realised how not hard it is to memorise stuff which can come in handy with other stuff, too.


----------



## ThomasJE (Jan 29, 2014)

Rnewms said:


> Those whom I have not befriended still recognize the "Rubik's cube guy"



I have had around 6 or 7 people ask me "Are you that Rubik's cube guy"?

I will go down in school folklore


----------



## Jaycee (Jan 29, 2014)

Mollerz said:


> Rnewms said:
> 
> 
> > "Rubik's cube guy"
> ...



Me too. I stopped bringing my cubes to my algebra/trig class because me teacher started calling me Rubik's cube guy instead of my name.


----------



## Renslay (Jan 29, 2014)

It helped to improve my combinatorial view, knowledge and aspect; it raised my interests about combinatorics and discrete mathematics. Some of my published scientific papers contains combinatorial problems and results. Also I found Kociemba's algorithm one of the most elegant computer algorithms for handling paths in vast graphs.


----------



## patrickcuber (Jan 29, 2014)

Yes said:


> Jobs. I've gotten hired for like 10 different gigs over the years (product promotions, exhibition openings, eye-catcher at conventions) and the pay has definitely been way better than for normal occupations that a 15 - 18-year-old with no job experience can do.
> Different but maybe also useful: Official accomplishments can't look all that bad on a CV.
> 
> Travel and people. I've met so many new people at competitions. I got to go to Hungary and Poland for Euro and Worlds in the US for free and I could never have afforded it myself.
> ...



Agreed.


----------



## NottNott (Feb 2, 2014)

After cubing for a solid three weeks now, I've DEFINITELY begun to notice a massive improvement in my memory.

Take my GCSE French for example. Previously remembering a paragraph took at least an hour of sweat and dedication. Now it takes 15 minutes to get it relatively perfect. Then I can just drill it in for perfection.

More reasons to cube than ever. :3


----------



## god of rubic 2 (Feb 2, 2014)

Spatial recognition and memory


----------



## brian724080 (Feb 2, 2014)

Bindedsa said:


> How? All OH cubers that I've seen (Including me), Do a Z rotation for LU F2L Pairs?



Sorry for not seeing this post. I just use my left-hand, I'm pretty much ambidextrous. This is one of the primary reasons I use ZZ, I do at most one cube rotation during F2L, and that usually happens during EOLine.

Edit: Never mind, I thought you were talking about 2H solving. I don't really do OH, but when I do, I do a z rotation for LU pairs.


----------



## guysensei1 (Feb 2, 2014)

I'm right handed but I use right hand for OH. I'm not very good though. 40 ish seconds.


----------



## Cubiquitous (Feb 2, 2014)

I realized that while I am at work, I typically scramble with my left and mouse with my right. Perhaps the scrambling helps keep up the dexterity in my left, but I definitely think that it comes from cubing in general. From playing piano, I have never been anywhere close to being evenly matched in both hands. But piano actual requires dexterity in your entire arm.


----------



## Laradoodle4 (Feb 2, 2014)

I play violin and piano and I've found that since I started solving with finger tricks (about 5 months ago) my playing has become like 10 times better

Also cubing relieves boredom


----------



## Immaperson (Feb 3, 2014)

kclejeune said:


> Hahaha that's awesome.
> 
> 
> That happened to me in this game called Egyptian Rat slap or something. Apparently I'm really good at it because reflexes



Me too. I play rat slap with a friend every day at lunch, and I always kick his butt. only ever lose to my cheating brother...-.-


----------



## McMitch (Feb 15, 2014)

Reaction times definitely.

I have only been speedcubing for about a month (I could solve it for about a year before) and I have already seen the benefits.

I was taking down some chairs at work (they are put on the tables over night) and I knocked one off, managed to grab it with one hand. Felt like an absolute boss. Also, catching things I have dropped, likes pens in class.


----------



## mrnephew (Feb 17, 2014)

I think so too. I'd be twirling a pen, drop it, and then I'd catch it in under a second.


----------



## McMitch (Feb 17, 2014)

mrnephew said:


> I think so too. I'd be twirling a pen, drop it, and then I'd catch it in under a second.



I have noticed exactly that.


----------



## JKNK (Feb 18, 2014)

Cubing also makes you more logical and you can easily solve other puzzles. It also gives you 10,000 dollars and a trip around the world + over 1 million youtube veiws if your felix or mats.


----------



## Lchu613 (Feb 18, 2014)

JKNK said:


> Cubing also makes you more logical and you can easily solve other puzzles. It also gives you 10,000 dollars and a trip around the world + over 1 million youtube veiws if your felix or mats.


I would say that this definitely happens IF you dedicate some time to studying how the cube works, like the logic behind it; if you're like me for my first 3 months just blindly trying to get faster you won't get any mental benefits.


----------



## Bh13 (Feb 18, 2014)

It really improves your ability to procastinate.


----------



## kcl (Feb 18, 2014)

Bh13 said:


> It really improves your ability to procastinate.



Truth be told, spent over 8 hours on skype Cubing this weekend and did no homework whatsoever


----------



## Jaysammey777 (Feb 18, 2014)

kclejeune said:


> Truth be told, spent over 8 hours on skype Cubing this weekend and did no homework whatsoever



I had a 7 day weekend to write 1 essay. Monday came and I had 1 day to write an essay.


----------



## TDM (Feb 18, 2014)

Jaysammey777 said:


> I had a 7 day weekend to write 1 essay. Monday came and I had 1 day to write an essay.


Last summer I had 8 weeks to revise for an English Lit resit. You can probably guess the rest yourself.
Hopefully I can avoid doing any revision this again for my GCSEs...


----------



## kcl (Feb 18, 2014)

TDM said:


> Last summer I had 8 weeks to revise for an English Lit resit. You can probably guess the rest yourself.
> Hopefully I can avoid doing any revision this again for my GCSEs...



I presume you ended up with about an hour to revise?


----------



## TDM (Feb 18, 2014)

kclejeune said:


> I presume you ended up with about an hour to revise?


Nah, I started revising properly about a day and a half before, although not all the time for that day and a half. Fortunately I did much better than before; instead of 7/25 and 14/25 I got 14/25 and 21/25. It helped having the exact same questions.


----------

