Gary Brown: Trying a Rubik's Cube helps you seeing your true colors
Suddenly I feel talentless.
Ungifted. Inexpert. Unskilled. Incapable. And a lot of other "un" and "in" words describing someone who lacks accomplishment, at least where Rubik's Cubes are concerned.
I've never solved a Rubik's Cube. I haven't even come close. Sometimes I'll try to solve the same cube for weeks, going back to it each day, until I finally get frustrated and just give up and throw it into a desk drawer.
Compare this to the young man I saw on a "Play of the Day" segment of ABC's "Good Morning America" television news and feature program the other day, a 22-year-old in China who solved three Rubik's Cubes at the same time – while juggling them – in a little more than three minutes.
More: Man from China sets world record for solving Rubik's Cube
It was a world record. And this was the second time he had accomplished that feat. He broke his own record.
Now, I'm a guy who doesn't hate anyone. I don't think we should. It's not right.
But, I came close to making an exception to that rule for this guy.
I think it was the juggling part that made me think, "Now he's just showing off."
More: Gary Brown: Growing up in a world we could trust
Trying to learn how
I watched the video a second time, to see if there was some trick being played on viewers. No, he really did solve all three Rubik's Cubes.
So, I watched it a third time, to see if I could catch on to the record breaker's technique. Fat chance for that. The cubes were only in his hands for about a second and a half. He barely touched them. How was I supposed to follow how he adjusted the colors?
Then I watched the video a fourth time, just to make myself feel worse.
That latter viewing did motivate me enough to think, "Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough."
So, I googled "how to solve a Rubik's cube," and discovered a bunch of educational videos, one of which billed itself being "the easiest way to solve a Rubik's cube." The guy making the video assured me he would teach me "slowly, step by step." He even had a snail pictured on top of a Rubik's cube.
His tutorial was aimed at someone learning at an 8-year-old level, because that's how he taught his 8-year-old son. It had something to do with colors that were opposite each other on the cube and "parking cars" on the top without crashing them. I didn't really understand.
Which means that not only am I more ignorant than the guy doing the video, I'm far less bright than his son.
More: Gary Brown: Going 'round about the roundabout
Seeing the algorithms
Still, I did learn one thing. The guy doing the video used the word "algorithms" more than once.
So, that's going to be what I talk about anytime the subject of the Rubik's cube ever comes up in conversation. If someone asks me whether or not I can solve one, I'm just going to say, "It's really all just algorithms."
I'm a word guy. I've found in life that you don't actually have to know HOW to do something, you just need to use words that make it sound as though you CAN do something.
If that doesn't work, I've got one other trick up my sleeve.
The "Good Morning America" newscaster during the Rubik's cube record segment said that the record-setter also held the record for "the most rotating Rubik's cubes solved while suspended upside down."
Obviously I'm not all that bright just sitting there upright, turning my cube. Maybe I'd do better if I turned over got some blood to flow to my brain.
Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Gary Brown: Trying a Rubik's Cube helps you seeing your true colors
