# What Happens To Young Cube Solvers When They Get Older?



## Coolster01 (Apr 28, 2013)

CarlBrannen said:


> We should put up a thread to figure out what happens to young cube solvers when they get older.


You asked for it.


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## uniacto (Apr 28, 2013)

haha, aren't you like, 12? That's pretty young.


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## Coolster01 (Apr 28, 2013)

uniacto said:


> haha, aren't you like, 12? That's pretty young.



11, but we're talking like, <10 year olds. Do they just get super fast or stop cubing?


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## Kirjava (Apr 28, 2013)

Coolster01 said:


> Do they just get super fast or stop cubing?



I don't know, but the exact same thing must happen to all of them.


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## Noahaha (Apr 28, 2013)

Dude... this is a conversation to have with your parents.


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## antoineccantin (Apr 28, 2013)

Little Korean girl got super fast at stuff.


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## Tyjet66 (Apr 29, 2013)

"What Happens To Young Cube Solvers When They Get Older? "
- They get older. /thread

"Do they just get super fast or stop cubing?"
- This is a pointless question, every individual will approach this differently. Some continue and get faster, some tapper off and stay around the same speed or get slower, and some stop cubing all together.


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## sneaklyfox (Apr 29, 2013)

Define "older". Like, if Coolster01 is 11 now, what will happen when he's in his 30s, has a career and his own family?


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## qqwref (Apr 29, 2013)

I have a feeling that for most of the REALLY young ones it's as follows:
- parent basically forces kid to learn to solve
- after a while the kid gets older and it's not as impressive
- parent doesn't care about having the kid cube anymore, kid doesn't care too much either, kid stops solving
- kid either gets into cubing again when older, or occasionally tells people they used to be able to solve one when they were like three

As the age gets higher I think kids get more and more likely to really enjoy cubing and want to learn/practice it for its own sake. By age 10-12 I think every cuber is in this group. Anyone who started cubing for this reason (even if they're younger) should follow a more or less normal cuber trajectory - getting more interested in certain parts of it, becoming faster with time, maybe joining the community, and quitting at some point when they get bored of it (or get too busy to continue).


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## mark49152 (Apr 29, 2013)

sneaklyfox said:


> Define "older". Like, if Coolster01 is 11 now, what will happen when he's in his 30s, has a career and his own family?


He'll represent the moon colony in Olympic 11x11 and be a regular poster on speedsolving by telepathy. Justin Bieber will be president...


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## Riley (Apr 29, 2013)

I used to cube in early 2007 when I was 10-11, for fun. I took a break until 2011 when I actually learned what "speed cubes" were and that there were faster "methods" for cubing.


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## TheNextFeliks (Apr 29, 2013)

Coolster01 said:


> 11, but we're talking like, <10 year olds. Do they just get super fast or stop cubing?



I thought you said you were 12. Hmm.


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## Coolster01 (Apr 29, 2013)

TheNextFeliks said:


> I thought you said you were 12. Hmm.



I'm 11. I never said that.


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## nlCuber22 (Apr 29, 2013)

They die.


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## ben1996123 (Apr 29, 2013)

They Learn How To Not Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word.


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## Skullush (Apr 29, 2013)

ben1996123 said:


> They Learn How To Not Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word.



Typically titles are capitalized, brah


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## Crowned xerxes (Apr 29, 2013)

Your to talk about the way someone types lol.


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## tx789 (Apr 29, 2013)

They quit or stop cubing those that could for them tomoroow or when they are 30 or older or maybe they never will


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## CarlBrannen (Apr 29, 2013)

I like nlcuber22's, "They die."


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## YddEd (Apr 29, 2013)

They.... Grow up..


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## Owen (Apr 29, 2013)

They go to a good school


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## PatrickJameson (Apr 29, 2013)

Started when I was 12. 18 now. I code.


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## Lorenzo (Apr 29, 2013)

when young cubers get older they get algheimers disease


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## Noahaha (Apr 29, 2013)

Lorenzo said:


> when young cubers get older they get algheimers disease



I laughed out loud.


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## cxinlee (Apr 29, 2013)

This thread should be nominated for best thread of the year.


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## TMOY (Apr 29, 2013)

Tyjet66 said:


> "
> "Do they just get super fast or stop cubing?"
> - This is a pointless question, every individual will approach this differently. Some continue and get faster, some tapper off and stay around the same speed or get slower, and some stop cubing all together.



Not sure there are many kids in the second category. Kids basically want to be as fast as possible, and when they can't improve anymore, they get bored and stop. The people who keep on cubing while staying slow are mostly grown-ups who don't care much about speed (or have no time to practice really hard) and cube and go to comps mainly for the fun of it.


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## LNZ (Apr 29, 2013)

I guess they quit and come back at a much older age. Age does have its advantages.

Examples include: 

Not requiring parental consent to go to competitions

More money to spend on puzzles and so you can build a puzzle collection

Much more able to attend major competitions (ie world Titles, etc)

Access to online sites by having your own debit/credit card


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## stoic (Apr 29, 2013)

LNZ said:


> I guess they quit and come back at a much older age. Age does have its advantages.
> 
> Examples include:
> 
> ...



True enough. One major disadvantage though...hardly any free time!!


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## Lchu613 (May 1, 2013)

Why would you have no free time?
I hope that doesn't happen, I (for some reason) can't actually see myself actually giving up cubing permanently. Well, that is as long as I don't get hit by a bus or something.

The monetary limit is pretty annoying, even though I know that it isn't practical to have a giant shopping spree on cubes


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## elrog (May 1, 2013)

An obvious answer to this question is they get older, but I think it is meant to ask what will become of their cubing experience. I think this relates directly to the reason they started in the first place.


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## googlebleh (May 1, 2013)

Lchu613 said:


> Why would you have no free time?



Your naïveté is showing! When people get older, they get jobs, families, and other responsibilities to worry about. For most people, this absorbs a _lot_ of their daily life. As much as I hope to never stop cubing (until I get arthritis or something) I would not be surprised if I have to cut down once these other things settle in.

OP: There is no definitive answer. It all depends on how the person's life goes, how much he likes cubing and what comes to stand in between him and his hobby.


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## ottozing (May 1, 2013)

They die

EDIT: Damnit ninja'd by nlCuber


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## Username (May 1, 2013)

ottozing said:


> They die



I personally haven't got that in my plans


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## mark49152 (May 1, 2013)

Username said:


> I personally haven't got that in my plans


Unfortunately you even have to plan for that, when you have family


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## GuyWithFunnyHat (May 1, 2013)

I was a young(ish) cuber that got older!

The time frame might be too small to fit the spirit of this thread, but I'll add my story in anyway because it's good procrastination.

I started cubing when I was about 15 (14? high school is a little fuzzy), and I was getting ~sub 15 averages by the end of high school. Sadly, I only went to one tournament, and it was early in my "career," so I don't have the official times to prove it. I was put on the wait list for a school that I really wanted to go to, and applicants were encouraged to send "additional materials" to increase their chances of acceptance. I sent them a DVD of me doing a bunch of cool stuff, which included an average of 5. I got accepted, probably in no small part due to the additional materials I sent.

I brought some cubes to college, but they didn't get much use outside of being a good parlour trick. Additionally, I had developed a repetitive stress injury in my right wrist during my senior year of high school (damn rubik's wrist), and I couldn't cube for more than a few hours without it tingling ominously. I pretty much stopped cubing for a few years and focused (if you can call it that) on studying. 

With any luck, I'll graduate in a few weeks, and I hope to pick up cubing more seriously, at least for a little while. My times have gotten a few seconds worse since high school, but that shouldn't last too long.

So...yeah. Nothing much cubing-related happened as I got older. I was actually slightly surprised by how little the speedcubing community has developed since I left it. People have gotten much faster, but the algs I use are still relevant, N perms still suck, and the methods used by the top cubers are still pretty much the same. I still have to invent my own COLLs for many cases, but finding fingertricks was always one of my favorite parts.

Hope that was at least somewhat relevant!


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## sneaklyfox (May 1, 2013)

mark49152 said:


> Unfortunately you even have to plan for that, when you have family



Uh huh, my cube collection goes to whichever of my children is fastest. (They compete for each individual cube/puzzle... get 3 tries on it and the fastest time is the winner.) This is all going to be written down in my will...


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## ben1996123 (May 1, 2013)

well I started cubing in about 2003 and I'm still here.


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## mark49152 (May 1, 2013)

sneaklyfox said:


> Uh huh, my cube collection goes to whichever of my children is fastest. (They compete for each individual cube/puzzle... get 3 tries on it and the fastest time is the winner.) This is all going to be written down in my will...


I want my cubes buried with me...


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## cmhardw (May 1, 2013)

I've been away from this forum for a while, but still cubing. Despite all the snarky comments in this thread I'll also answer this question seriously, as I used to wonder the same thing.

I've been cubing for just shy of 15 years, started when I was 14 and now I have a job, lots more responsibilities, etc.

In short:
- I still love to cube
- I still practice, though not nearly as much as I used to
- I still go to competitions, though not nearly as many as I used to
- I still plan to cube until I'm old or until I get arthritis so bad that I have to pick up one-handed cubing again (or feet cubing  )

Life and responsibilities definitely make it harder to cube as much as when you were younger. If you really like cubing then this is just something that happens, and is not anything to fret over. If you enjoy cubing now, then you'll enjoy it just as much 10 years from now.


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## JF1zl3 (May 1, 2013)

The question is too broad. What is the focus of what you want to know happens to them? Many many things happen to young cubers as they get older, just like how many many things happen to young non-cubers as they get older.


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## Crazycubemom (May 1, 2013)

ahhahaha I call myself : Getting old getting Hot ( in this case with cubing)

My husband is lazy with practice so I have to remind him to practice. During doing ironing I always have a break with solving my cube ( avg of 20 or even 50) I think Age is not important BUT your spirit and talent.


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## Kirjava (May 1, 2013)

I practise way more now than when I did 8 years ago.


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## 5BLD (May 1, 2013)

I don't cube less, just my focusses change. I used to be interested in technique work, now i spend time sitting around developing methods. This looks like I've just given up cubing, but as you go on things get more relaxed. Cubing isn't the centre of my life anymore.


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## Ton (May 20, 2013)

You will cube less and still get faster .....
With my 52 year my PB single in competition is 11.21 sec average is 16.67 , I guess I never will stop , I know I can still beat this average if I practice more ....


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## CubezUBR (Jun 2, 2013)

you get faster until you get bored or something happens then you quit after like 1-6 years


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## YddEd (Jun 2, 2013)

sneaklyfox said:


> Uh huh, my cube collection goes to whichever of my children is fastest. (They compete for each individual cube/puzzle... get 3 tries on it and the fastest time is the winner.) This is all going to be written down in my will...


XD Thats just weird. I would share the cubes.


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## applemobile (Jun 2, 2013)

They get fatter and lonelier.


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## IamWEB (Jun 2, 2013)

8 years ago, I could solve one side.
Now, I can solve all six sides.
This is what happens when a young cuber grows up.
Yes.


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## mark49152 (Jun 2, 2013)

applemobile said:


> They get fatter and lonelier.


... and more cynical


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## MichaelErskine (Jun 10, 2013)

Motorcycle accidents and failed relationships.

EDIT: not me BTW -- I was not a cuber when young!


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## pipkiksass (Jun 10, 2013)

I'd say, as with any other 'hobby', maybe 20% will continue at the same level. I think this is true of any pursuit that youngsters take on, because they have so much spare time, but then the amount of spare time steadily decreases (until you retire, I guess!?). 

For example, I went to school with 2 England under 18 rugby players. Neither plays rugby any more, although one played into his 20's. I know another guy who played pool internationally at age 16, and now is fat and lazy and useless at most things, although he can still kick my ass at pool!

Most people who continue do so not necessarily because they're the best, but because their motivation for doing something comes from the pure love of doing the activity itself, rather than the results. For example, I ran at school. I was pretty good, and qualified for the national championships. I don't run any more, but a friend I ran with, who was barely a reserve runner for our team, still runs. He runs because he loves running - he doesn't expect to win races. If you run to win races, NOT winning races is more likely to upset you than if you run purely for the joy of running. Same goes for cubing - if you cube to be sub-xx and DON'T get sub-xx, I guess you're more likely to give up than those who cube for the love of cubing. 

The other 80% will inevitably lose interest as they get into things like the opposite sex/same sex/drink/drugs/family life/employment. Of this 80%, there will be some, sure, who will still occasionally cube, but not with the regularity or commitment that they had in their youth. There will be others who will pick up a cube at a party one day and solve it, dazzling the crowds, and remember how much fun cubing is. Maybe they'll start cubing again, and appreciate the joy of cubing rather than the agony of failing to become a world-beating cuber, and this time stick at it?!

So IMHO, those who love cubing, not love being fast, are more likely to stick at it. The rest will sell all but 1 of their cubes, which will end up gathering dust in a cardboard box, under the bed they used to sleep in at their parents' house, alongside the football boots, tennis racquet, and Twilight posters.

Edit: just FYI, 80/20 is just an arbitrary figure I plucked out of thin air based on personal experience. I'd say less than 10% of my friends still actively engage in hobbies they enjoyed in their teens.


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## Chree (Jun 10, 2013)

I didn't start cubing until I was 20, but I had just dropped out of college and only had a part time job, so I had a loooooot of free time.

About 2 years later, I was working full time at a call center, so I could still solve a lot at work. This is when V-Cubes came out and I got into bigger puzzles. I met a girl who I'd later marry, and she loved that I could solve a Rubik's Cube, and she liked to show me off to her friends, so I still played a lot.

But then I moved to California, worked full time, was married, and was trying to make a living. The time that I spent cubing dropped off significantly.

Three years after that, however, I was divorced, moved to Oregon, and I'm back working at a job where I sit in a cubicle. I walk to work every day, which is 45 minutes there and back of pure cubing time. And I'm still single. So I'm backing to being able to get hundreds of solves a day in.

Another thing you might notice as you get older however is something that Lars Petrus puts very succinctly on his website:

"Being able to solve Rubiks cube very fast is a near useless skill, that takes a lot of time to acquire, and does not typically impress the opposite sex. If you think you have better things to do, I can only agree. You probably have."

For all you young, male cubers out there: girlfriends, should you be lucky enough to attract one, will make you worse at cubing unless you are very, very, very picky.


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## emolover (Jun 10, 2013)

Chree said:


> For all you young, male cubers out there: girlfriends, should you be lucky enough to attract one, will make you worse at cubing unless you are very, very, very picky.



I don't want to be the typical forum faggot, but not all guys are straight. What is nice for them is that they are more likely to find somebody of the same sex that does like cubing.


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## Chree (Jun 10, 2013)

emolover said:


> I don't want to be the typical forum faggot, but not all guys are straight. What is nice for them is that they are more likely to find somebody of the same sex that does like cubing.



Nah, you're right  That's my bad for not being all inclusive.

I wonder how successful a website like www.singlecubers.com would be.


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## MichaelErskine (Jun 10, 2013)

Chree said:


> I wonder how successful a website like www.singlecubers.com would be.



Hmmm, let me think.... Very successful with single male teenagers methinks


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## speedcuber50 (Jun 10, 2013)

I was about 5 when I first "discovered" a rubik's cube in my drawer (it was my mother's old cube from when she was younger and she had given it to me to fiddle around with). I managed to get the complete top face white, although the sides of the pieces were not correct, as would be expected from a five year old.

Eventually she showed me how to get the white pieces in the correct place, and then how to do the middle layer using a standard LBL-type system. However, there was an algorithim for the bottom layer which she had forgotten, so she was unable to show me how to do the complete cube.

When I was about 8 she finally found me an online guide to solving the cube, which I subsequently took to quite easily. I spent about a week learning all the algorithims (there were only about 3 or 4 to learn) and then I could solve it in about 1:40 (which was faster than my mother had been!).

Over time my times dropped to just above 1:20, and I stopped cubing. Last year, at the age of 13, I started again, only to find that I had forgotten an algorithim. Fortunately I still had the solution guide, so I quickly re-learnt it.

My father claimed to have done it in 1:17 when he was younger, so it was quite I milestone when I got faster than that. Then I dropped to 1:10. Then to 60 seconds (I can still remember when I got 59 seconds!).

By this time I was getting fed up with LBL, so, after a bit of searching, I started learning F2L. My times were pretty rubbish at first, but they soon dropped to sub-50. And then my cube broke.

I had to wait a few months before I could get another cube (it was a Rubik's brand). When I got it it was incredibly stiff, so my times went up again. However, it soon freed up and I got back to sub-50.

It was really only practice which got me sub-40 (I can still remember when I got 38 seconds!). But by now I needed to learn 1-look PLL and 2-look OLL, rather than the beginner methods which I still used, so I started finding some algorithims myself and getting others online. However, I still needed a speedcube.

At around this time, I discovered this forum and signed up. My progression through the 30s was relatively quick, so I was soon sub-30 with almost full PLL.

About 6 months ago I was averaging around 30 seconds, with a PB of 26. I have now got a Dayan Zhanchi, after wanting one for almost a year, and am learning full OLL, finishing off my last few PLL cases, and practicing lookahead. My PB has dropped to 18 seconds, with a rather lucky PB of 16 (x-cross with PLL skip). My average is now around 25. 30 has gone from being a "good" time to being a "bad" time.

So I am becoming a speedcuber...


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## That70sShowDude (Jun 10, 2013)

They start lifting weights and cube a lot less.

well this is the case for fanwuq, Reese bros, and I, lol.


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## RyanReese09 (Jun 10, 2013)

That70sShowDude said:


> They start lifting weights and cube a lot less.
> 
> well this is the case for fanwuq, Reese bros, and I, lol.



Basically.


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## fanwuq (Jun 10, 2013)

That70sShowDude said:


> They start lifting weights and cube a lot less.
> 
> well this is the case for fanwuq, Reese bros, and I, lol.




Shhhh no more cubes, only gains now


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