# What Makes the Cubing Community Special?



## Noahaha (Dec 25, 2014)

Hey guys, I thought I would share some thoughts on what I think is an important question:







Tell me what you think.


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## Stefan (Dec 25, 2014)

Ha... early in the video I was thinking that other hobbies have all that stuff as well and thus cubing isn't really special. And then you said exactly that. And I thought about joking what does make it special is that it has me. And then you kinda said exactly that  (well, not me for everyone, but everyone for themselves, like you said). So we seem to agree...


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## Berd (Dec 25, 2014)

Interesting video!


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## PenguinsDontFly (Dec 25, 2014)

I think our community is special for 3 reasons:
1. The awesomeness of our hobby
2. The average age and gender of our members (teenage boys)
3. How all of our members have common goals of improvement, can relate to eachother, help eachother, and encoure the P word. These three reasons makes all of our members very nice and sociable people, even if they dont know it.


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## Rocky0701 (Dec 26, 2014)

1. While it is kind of a stereotype, I think there is a lot of truth to the fact that most cubers have pretty high IQs.
2. We aren't afraid to be a little nerdy and express ourselves.
3. Most of the community is willing to help newbies out and help them get faster.
4. That moment when you look at the timer and see a PB, or take a blindfold off and see a solved cube.
5. We are for the most part very humorous and fun loving.
6. The fact that everyone thinks we're geniuses when we are just normal people
7. That unlike something such as soccer or baseball or something, anyone can become pretty good at cubing with some practice.
8. That's pretty much it, there's nothing more to say other than that we're awesome!


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## Dene (Dec 26, 2014)

There is nothing special or unique about our community. You could take on any other hobby that you are passionate about and get involved in an identical community there. For example, before I got into speedcubing I was really into Age of Mythology. I was very involved with one of the main international forum communities then and it was much the same as this community (although significantly more developed).


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## Dene (Dec 27, 2014)

You know what, I changed my mind. There is something special about this community that you wouldn't find in a lot of other communities (although I wouldn't say it's unique about us).


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## JediJupiter (Jan 5, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> I think our community is special for 3 reasons:
> 1. The awesomeness of our hobby
> 2. The average age and gender of our members (teenage boys)
> 3. How all of our members have common goals of improvement, can relate to eachother, help eachother, and encoure the P word. These three reasons makes all of our members very nice and sociable people, even if they dont know it.


So teenage boys make it special? I think it's more that everyone is friendly rather than being the same age/gender. The older, younger and female people here are all just as great to be around as everyone else.


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## tseitsei (Jan 5, 2015)

JediJupiter said:


> So teenage boys make it special?



I much prefer teenage girls...  Not too many of those in speedcubing though


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## PenguinsDontFly (Jan 5, 2015)

JediJupiter said:


> So teenage boys make it special? I think it's more that everyone is friendly rather than being the same age/gender. The older, younger and female people here are all just as great to be around as everyone else.



I mean that we are mostly in the same age group and can relate to eachother. Im not saying that younger/older/female membrs harm the community at all, and I believe that some variety is great, and more people is always better.


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## JediJupiter (Jan 5, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> I mean that we are mostly in the same age group and can relate to eachother. Im not saying that younger/older/female membrs harm the community at all, and I believe that some variety is great, and more people is always better.


I didn't think you meant that, I just think that even if there were no teenage boys here, aside from being less busy, it wouldn't change all that much.


tseitsei said:


> I much prefer teenage girls...  Not too many of those in speedcubing though


Yeah, there were only 2 or 3 at my last comp. [emoji22]


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## sneaklyfox (Jan 5, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> 2. The average age and gender of our members (teenage boys)



That's it. I'm tired of all you young teenage boys overrunning the place. I'm leaving.


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## PenguinsDontFly (Jan 5, 2015)

sneaklyfox said:


> That's it. I'm tired of all you young teenage boys overrunning the place. I'm leaving.



No dont do that! Average age and gender of our community could have easily been adult women, but it isnt. I guess us young boys have nothing to do other than homework in our spare time since we dont really have to make money. Besides, older cubers are usually the ones who invent methods and influence the community the most, and most cubers would be nowhere without help from a certain cuber named JESSICA FRIDRICH.


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## sneaklyfox (Jan 5, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> No dont do that! Average age and gender of our community could have easily been adult women, but it isnt. I guess us young boys have nothing to do other than homework in our spare time since we dont really have to make money. Besides, older cubers are usually the ones who invent methods and influence the community the most, and most cubers would be nowhere without help from a certain cuber named JESSICA FRIDRICH.



Except she used to be a he.


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## Berd (Jan 5, 2015)

sneaklyfox said:


> Except she used to be a he.


Wait really!?


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## PenguinsDontFly (Jan 5, 2015)

sneaklyfox said:


> Except she used to be a he.



Why does that matter?


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## rybaby (Jan 6, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> Besides, older cubers are usually the ones who invent methods



J. Fridrich
Guus Razoux Schultz
Marc Waterman
Anneke Treep
Lars Petrus
Jeffrey Varasano
...

All these people developed methods when they were teenagers, I believe.


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## cashis (Jan 6, 2015)

Rocky0701 said:


> 4. That moment when you look at the timer and see a PB, or take a blindfold off and see a solved cube.
> 6. The fact that everyone thinks we're geniuses when we are just normal people



these two are possibly the most unique aspects of cubing, to me at least.
no other hobby or sport (to me) has the unique rush of excitement from a PB or a finished blindsolve, and that's why I love this community and what we do.


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## josh42732 (Jan 6, 2015)

Rocky0701 said:


> 1. While it is kind of a stereotype, I think there is a lot of truth to the fact that most cubers have pretty high IQs.
> 2. We aren't afraid to be a little nerdy and express ourselves.
> 3. Most of the community is willing to help newbies out and help them get faster.
> 4. That moment when you look at the timer and see a PB, or take a blindfold off and see a solved cube.
> ...



Dang. You just made my day. Maybe even life. That's deep.


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## Rocky0701 (Jan 6, 2015)

josh42732 said:


> Dang. You just made my day. Maybe even life. That's deep.


Lol, I wasn't trying to be deep, but thanks. 



cashis said:


> these two are possibly the most unique aspects of cubing, to me at least.
> no other hobby or sport (to me) has the unique rush of excitement from a PB or a finished blindsolve, and that's why I love this community and what we do.


Yup, or like when a solve has super good flow or fast TPS.


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## cashis (Jan 6, 2015)

Rocky0701 said:


> Lol, I wasn't trying to be deep, but thanks.
> 
> Yup, or like when a solve has super good flow or fast TPS.



Or when you get a six move X cross and see all three pairs in inspection and get a 4.2 *cough* feliks


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## Rocky0701 (Jan 6, 2015)

Or when you get 3.72 with a 24 move solution because of a lolscramble. *Cough* Drew


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## sneaklyfox (Jan 6, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> Average age and gender of our community could have easily been adult women



No way. Because 1) yes, most adults have a lot of more important things to do and 2) (someone's going to shoot me for this but fortunately I'm a woman) men and women are different in the head and men do normally have a greater natural affinity for cubing and related things. I think it's really silly for people to either not think so or be afraid to say so for the sake of political correctness.


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## tseitsei (Jan 6, 2015)

> 7. That unlike something such as soccer or baseball or something, anyone can become pretty good at cubing with some practice.



This is just untrue.

You just need less practice hours to become "pretty good" at cubing (or any smaller sport that doesn't have millions of active people seriously training to become good) than at soccer (or any other popular sport with huge pool of talented people to choose the best from. And huge amounts of money too)...

This is nothing special. That's just how things work for obvious reasons. The more popular the sport or hobby is the harder it is to become world class in it... But anyone (with normally functioning body and brains) can become "pretty good" at any hobby they practice enough. Of course someone will always be more talented but practice means so much more than pure talent in (almost) every hobby...


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## Nukenin16 (Jan 7, 2015)

rybaby said:


> J. Fridrich
> Guus Razoux Schultz
> Marc Waterman
> Anneke Treep
> ...



J. Fridrich did not invent any methods, she popularized the "CFOP" method thats why some people call it "Fridrich Method". But she did came up with some algs. for it


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## Nukenin16 (Jan 7, 2015)

Dene said:


> There is nothing special or unique about our community. You could take on any other hobby that you are passionate about and get involved in an identical community there. For example, before I got into speedcubing I was really into Age of Mythology. I was very involved with one of the main international forum communities then and it was much the same as this community (although significantly more developed).



That's not really true because there is something unique about cubing community the fact that we solve cubes, no other community that I know do that. But every community has something "unique" because there isn't 2 of the same community which doesn't really make it special but unique.


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## rybaby (Jan 7, 2015)

Nukenin16 said:


> J. Fridrich did not invent any methods, she popularized the "CFOP" method thats why some people call it "Fridrich Method". But she did came up with some algs. for it



Yes, that's why I included the word "developed." Several people's ideas formed the method; s/he found some algs for it (independently I believe). Guus Razoux Schultz was actually using CFCE at WC1982 while Fridrich used LBL strategies for the F2L. This is probably beside the point of the thread though.


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## cmhardw (Jan 7, 2015)

sneaklyfox said:


> 2) (someone's going to shoot me for this but fortunately I'm a woman) men and women are different in the head and men do normally have a greater natural affinity for cubing and related things.



I don't think boys have a natural affinity for cubing that girls don't. More boys practice cubing regularly than girls, but I don't see how that means the boys have an affinity for it that the girls somehow lack.


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## Dene (Jan 7, 2015)

Nukenin16 said:


> That's not really true because there is something unique about cubing community the fact that we solve cubes, no other community that I know do that. But every community has something "unique" because there isn't 2 of the same community which doesn't really make it special but unique.



Ok but that's retarded for the very reason you said. Obviously the fact that we solve twisty puzzles fast is unique to our community, but every community forms around some common hobby. So in a way, every community has that one "unique" aspect, therefore there is nothing unique about it.


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## IRNjuggle28 (Jan 8, 2015)

cashis said:


> no other hobby or sport (to me) has the unique rush of excitement from a PB or a finished blindsolve, and that's why I love this community and what we do.


Juggling has a hundred times more excitement from breaking PBs than cubing does. There are a lot of jugglers on here, and I bet they'll all tell you that. With cubing, it's a matter of how long it takes you to successfully solve the cube, so success is on a spectrum. With juggling, you either keep succeeding, or you drop. The line between success and failure is much more sudden in juggling than in cubing, and that makes succeeding more satisfying, and failing more agonizing.


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## tseitsei (Jan 8, 2015)

IRNjuggle28 said:


> Juggling has a hundred times more excitement from breaking PBs than cubing does. There are a lot of jugglers on here, and I bet they'll all tell you that. With cubing, it's a matter of how long it takes you to successfully solve the cube, so success is on a spectrum. With juggling, you either keep succeeding, or you drop. The line between success and failure is much more sudden in juggling than in cubing, and that makes succeeding more satisfying, and failing more agonizing.



I also juggle but I would say BLD solving is even more exciting. At least for me... 

The moment when you know you did an amazingly fast solve and you still have your blindfold on. Then you slowly remove the blindfold and see a fully solved cube and look at the timer to see a new PB time :tu AWESOME

or you remove the blindfold to see 5bld dnf with 2 centers that would have been PB by a lot  not so awesome...


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## minstorm340 (Mar 1, 2015)

I am part of the competitive gaming community, and can say that that community is much different than this.


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## Seanliu (Mar 2, 2015)

I think that the answer is very simple: We can solve a Rubik's Cube and other puzzles that the average Muggle wouldn't have even dreamt of, faster than they can eat a potato sandwich with peanut butter in the middle.


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## Tim Major (Mar 2, 2015)

cmhardw said:


> I don't think boys have a natural affinity for cubing that girls don't. More boys practice cubing regularly than girls, but I don't see how that means the boys have an affinity for it that the girls somehow lack.



Why are the best cubers male? Because of physical genes? Then why are the best chess players, poker players etc male?

Men and women do not have identical brains


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## JemFish (Mar 2, 2015)

Tim Major said:


> Why are the best cubers male? Because of physical genes? Then why are the best chess players, poker players etc male?
> 
> Men and women do not have identical brains



Women and girls (often) say "oh I couldn't do that! It's too hard" whereas boys (often) go "let's give it a try."


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## newtonbase (Mar 2, 2015)

I think the difference is less about ability and more about interest. If there were as many females as males who wanted to be good at speedsolving we would see the records shared much more evenly.


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## Ingo (Mar 2, 2015)

There would be a lot more female cubers if cubes had a soft fur


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## Tim Major (Mar 2, 2015)

JemFish said:


> Women and girls (often) say "oh I couldn't do that! It's too hard" whereas boys (often) go "let's give it a try."



Wouldn't that support what I, and sneaklyfox have stated?


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## JemFish (Mar 2, 2015)

Tim Major said:


> Wouldn't that support what I, and sneaklyfox have stated?



Er...yes...? Is that a problem?


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## Dene (Mar 3, 2015)

minstorm340 said:


> I am part of the competitive gaming community, and can say that that community is much different than this.



Which community? I've been involved in several different gaming communities and I see little difference.


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## cmhardw (Mar 3, 2015)

Tim Major said:


> Why are the best cubers male? Because of physical genes? Then why are the best chess players, poker players etc male?
> 
> Men and women do not have identical brains



I don't understand your point in your first paragraph? Can you please rephrase?

I agree that men and women do not have identical brains. However, I think that cultural pressures and interest in other things are why there are not more women at the top of speedcubing than there are currently.

It is true that more men/boys practice cubing than women/girls. You cannot conclude from that that men/boys are _more_ capable of being great at cubing than women/girls. The most you can conclude from the observation is that more men/boys practice cubing than women/girls.

My argument for this being the status quo is not that women/girls are somehow less _capable_ of cubing greatness, but rather than men/boys as a general rule are more interested in putting forth the effort to _pursue_ cubing greatness. Just because there are "fewer" women in cubing who are great does not mean that women/girls have a reduced capability to be great as compared to men/boys.


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## JemFish (Mar 3, 2015)

cmhardw said:


> I don't understand your point in your first paragraph? Can you please rephrase?
> 
> I agree that men and women do not have identical brains. However, I think that cultural pressures and interest in other things are why there are not more women at the top of speedcubing than there are currently.
> 
> ...



I totally agree with what you said. The "cultural pressures" is a big reason why girls/women often think that they aren't "capable of being great at cubing," while they actually can. I taught my 6-year-old brother how to solve a Rubik's Cube, so a girl twice as old as him can definitely do it.


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## DeeDubb (Mar 3, 2015)

cmhardw said:


> My argument for this being the status quo is not that women/girls are somehow less _capable_ of cubing greatness, but rather than men/boys as a general rule are more interested in putting forth the effort to _pursue_ cubing greatness. Just because there are "fewer" women in cubing who are great does not mean that women/girls have a reduced capability to be great as compared to men/boys.



I'm glad you said this, I almost said the same thing but a lot meaner out of anger.

Anyway, for evidence showing that women are completely capable of holding world records, look no further than Yu Da Hyun.






It's just women are not represented statistically as well as men. It's the same argument between Roux and CFOP. It's impossible to say which one is better because Roux is so underrepresented.

There are biological differences between men and women, but none of those differences should have any impact on ability to solve a Rubik's Cube.


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