(Craig exhales)
- [Announcer] And now WheezyWaiter will attempt
a new world record.
(dramatic music)
(gunshot sound)
(Rubik's Cube rustling)
(ding sound) It's a new world record!
(cheering sound)
(upbeat music)
- So how do they get to this point where I was able to
fake solve a Rubik's Cube in two seconds?
Well, I went to college for some video production classes.
Became fluent in video editing software,
actually learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube much slower,
like three weeks ago, and then faked it with video.
(cheering sound) Thank you. Thank you.
I'm very proud of myself.
But for real, I do know how to solve one
by of googling it,
finding this very helpful video from Wired
and then practicing for a few days.
And now I can solve it in like two minutes,
which I mean, come on.
It's pretty close to the world record of 3.47 seconds
from this kid named Yusheng Du.
- Whoa! Whoa! (crowd cheering)
- That was the only video I could find.
But the slightly slower solved,
slightly slower solved,
from a claimed cubist, not Cubist,
cuber Feliks Zemdegs gives you a closeup idea.
- [Boy] Wow!
Oh come on, come, come on get it some five.
(crowd cheers)
- Oh my god, 4.22 seconds.
I was so bored with that extra three quarters of a second.
I took a nap and I didn't want you to be bored
so I threw on a single frame of a cat in there.
Did you see? Kitty.
Why did I decide to solve a Rubik's cube now at 39,
despite half-assing a Rubik's Cube my whole life up to now.
I have no idea.
Maybe it was because a wise man once told me,
"If you half ass something, you will only half poop it."
Actually, that was me so that, that's not it,
It wasn't for the sake of making this video.
I did not plan to make this video
when I decided to solve it.
I don't know why I did it, but I'm glad I did it. Why?
I also don't know why?
Just like I don't know why I learned to juggle.
It has literally never been useful in my life,
but I am waiting for the day when I need to carry
three coconuts across a bridge
that can only hold me and two coconuts.
(Rubik's Cube falls)
Oh, oh. There goes a coconut.
And looking back,
I think I approached learning guitar the same way.
Initially I wasn't even that into rock music.
I didn't have aspirations to be a rock and rollist,
as no one calls them.
Just started noodling around and discovered that the more
I did it, the better I got, and that was exciting.
And eventually I became unknown as a mediocre guitarist
that you don't think about as a guitarist to this day.
Playing guitar did eventually define my life though
for a while, playing with my rock band.
Juggling never really did.
Circus already had enough jugglers
and they didn't accept my pitch to be the bearded man.
I thought it was interesting. Works on YouTube.
Side note, maybe I could learn how to cube
while juggling like this kid.
(upbeat music)
- First, let's try it with one. (Rubik's cube rustles)
(Rubik's cube drops) That's insane. I'm not doing that.
But I didn't actually learn any of these things
to define my life.
Even though it may be, they do define my life
in unseen ways, much like how an unseen blue square
moves from here to there as I try to solve the puzzle,
dictating the entire cube destiny without me knowing.
Like how juggling or Rubik's cubing or guitaring
gives me motor skills and problem solving abilities
in some hard to detect way.
Point is, I don't know what the point is.
But I do know when I started to do it,
a bunch of questions came to my head.
So I decided to make this video to answer them.
One, why did I want to solve a Rubik's Cube
and why do I enjoy it?
That's two questions.
But, much like 20 squares on the same turn,
they go together.
I'm killing it with the metaphors today.
Two, is my new found Rubsessive compulsion
good for me in any way, is it useful?
And three,
I forgot what question three was.
But before we answer these questions, first,
I'm going to answer the question that many of you
probably have and many of you don't,
how do you solve a Rubik's Cube?
How do you solve a problem like a Rubik's Cube?
Guitar skills paying off.
Here's how, you Google it.
You find the instructions
and then you do it and then you practice a lot.
I highly recommend the Wired video that I found
and you know what?
John Green also found it
and learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube
at the exact same time as me based on his comment
on that video and I had no idea.
And then I came across this video about it.
- Last night, with the help of Robbie Gonzalez
and anxious insomnia, I finished a Rubik's Cube.
After 30 years of failure, I did it.
- And then I asked him to ask him about it and he said
he would answer so I asked him.
- Okay, we've got the white cross
and now we're going to do some triggers.
Hold on, you're calling.
- Hello?
- Just solving a Rubik's Cube over here.
- Oh wow. That's a coincidence.
That's what we're going to talk about.
- But it's also like what I do every time
I have three spare seconds, so it's real.
- Okay, cool.
- Hi, sorry. - Hi.
- That's the other thing is that
I never make eye contact anymore. (Craig laughs)
I've never been a person who makes a lot of eye contact,
but like, this is a great excuse not to make eye contact.
- You and I, I think around the same time
just decided to solve Rubik's Cubes.
- [John] Yeah. That Robbie Gonzalez videos is amazing.
- Now we know how to solve a Rubik's Cube. Big, hairy deal.
Now to the big, hairy questions.
Why do I want to solve a Rubik's Cube and why do I enjoy it?
Because I absolutely do enjoy it.
I keep solving it over and over again. And it's fun. Hehe.
- I think I needed an activity that would occupy my mind
without like stressing or taxing it,
but because I don't have a very good sense
of spatial intelligence,
I also am like a little bit surprised and delighted
every time it works,
because I don't totally understand why it works.
I just have the algorithms memorized.
- I don't think I initially had any reason
why I decided to learn.
It was just like, oh, I just kind of want to learn
so that I can say that I know how to do it. I don't know.
Mildly impress people or whatever.
Plus I'm waiting for my wife to put her baby to bed
before we will start watching TV.
So I got to do something or whatever.
And then I learned how to do it,
but I had no intention of seeing how fast I could do it,
but then I started timing it
and I started asking Chyna to time it.
Okay. Time me. Time me.
- All right, go.
- And she'd start her stopwatch and I'd go for it.
And she loved it. She was so into it.
Yeah, that's why I do it. To impress her. Obviously.
- I can reliably solve a Rubik's Cube now
in under three minutes,
occasionally in under two minutes and 20 seconds.
- My best is like a minute, 28.
- Well, you've always been a little bit better than me.
(Craig laughs)
- Side note, why do we call it a stopwatch
and not a startwatch, or stopstartwatch?
I guess stop start is a little bit of a mouthful.
Stop, start, stop, start.
And I guess it's in the stop state more often than the
started state, unless there's a stopwatch,
that's just been going on forever.
I guess that's a clock, anyway.
So I'm not really doing it to impress people.
A lot of people can solve a Rubik's Cube
and it's really easy to learn how.
I guess it can be a cool party trick
if we ever go to parties again.
And I guess there's the other side.
Not only are you not impressing people,
but you're giving them the opportunity
to deliver the comment.
You know, this comment.
Oh, it's so good.
Here's the comment I'm talking about.
- You must have all the time on your hands, huh?
- Oh, so you don't have any free time then?
- No, all I do is work. Work, work, work.
Working everyday.
- You're trying to pound a screw up.
- Stay in your lane, cube boy.
- So when they say this comment,
what they're really saying is-
- The way you choose to spend your free time isn't valid
'cause I don't care about that.
- Or perhaps even-
- I don't want to feel inferior at that activity.
So I'll just bring down that activity itself.
- So no, it's not really to try to impress people.
Although sometimes it is to try to impress myself.
I look at the motions of a speed Cubist, cuber.
To me, that looks pretty cool.
And after so much time practicing, feeling like a toddler
trying to learn to walk, once in a while,
it's like I get into that flow state
and I feel like I'm moving like that. It's my Matrix moment.
- How did you do that?
- Do what?
- You move like they do.
I've never seen anyone move that fast.
- Wasn't fast enough.
- So I think aside from trying to be Neo,
I just find enjoyment in seeing something
where there's an obvious goal to try to accomplish.
Like a video game.
And there's something just incomplete there
that I want to complete.
Same, same as like popping a pimple,
which I talked about in a video.
We like to think of our faces as
symmetrical orbs of smoothitude, a velvet playground,
unblinded topography.
So when we come across a blemish,
it contradicts our perfect self image.
This contradicts my perfect self image.
It's human nature to try to have closure,
bring order to chaos, destroy and rebuild better.
In the circle,
the circle of life!
- It just brings me so much joy to take chaos
and make it into order.
Especially in a time in my life
where there is a lot of chaos that I can't bring to order.
- Two, is my new found Rubsessive compulsion
to solve the cube good for me?
Is it useful? My baby has a lot to say about it.
(baby talking in background)
Now there's obvious ways that solving puzzles
is good for you though, the fine motor skills,
improved memory, reflexes, dexterity, magic defense,
et cetera, or simply learning rules
and following directions.
And like reading a book or playing a video game,
it's a way to de-stress, to focus on one thing.
- It puts you in an almost like a meditative state.
I'm in the flow of it.
It's almost like trail running or playing Tetris
or something.
If you're like me and you're overwhelmed
and freaked out right now,
this is a surprisingly good use of time.
- And that's all well and good.
But what I notice that I'm most interested in
is what it does for patience, overcoming frustration,
the value of practice.
There's this wall you hit when you learn something new,
it happens to my daughter all the time and I'm seeing it.
- I can't do it.
- Try again. - I can't.
- I know you can straighten the wrinkle out of the blanket.
- No!
- For me, it was strongest with guitar.
When I was first trying to learn power chords,
I was using the song, Glycerine by Bush
because it was an easy chord progression.
Must be your skin.
I'm sinking in.
Must be for real.
Now I can feel.
Later I learned that's the four chords
in nearly every pop song.
But at some point I was like, I can't do this!
And I like threw the guitar and I was very frustrated.
I remember this as the crucial moment
where I almost walked away and quit forever.
Something in me decided to just continue.
And I discovered just doing it over and over
without even an obvious reason why I was improving,
I was improving.
You have to trust the process.
The Rubik's Cube teaches you that too. It's the same thing.
You start to follow the directions and you're like,
nope, that's way too much information, I quit, super quit.
And that's fine.
You do not need to learn how to do the Rubik's Cube.
But if you continue, you just start getting better.
At one point I got it to about three minutes
and then I gradually got up to two and a half
and then I got it down sometimes under two,
one and a half is my best.
And I can't even pinpoint why I'm faster,
what I'm doing better.
It's an intangible improvement,
but it just happens by doing it over and over.
It helps teach you that progress
doesn't always feel like progress.
You gotta practice and trust the process.
- Even if you're like me and you don't have a gift for like
understanding where this green piece is going to be
three moves from now,
when you practice, you get better
and you begin to develop some of those understandings.
I find that with everything in my life,
like the things that I think I suck at,
a lot of times, it's not that I suck at them.
It's that I haven't been able to approach them
in a way that works for me.
And I haven't done the work yet
to really understand them more deeply.
- With anything you want to do, you just have to show up
over and over again.
And make sure that you-
Don't let the days go by!
Without practice.
And the third question, I still don't remember what it is.
That's all.
And now I'd like to thank the sponsor of this video,
Skillshare.
You ever wish someone would dispense abilities at you?
Well, someone will. That's exactly the kind of thing you get
with ability dispense, sorry, Skillshare.
They're an online learning community with inspiring classes
numbered in the thousands, that's a lot.
You'd know that if you took their mathematics classes.
They even have classes on how to solve Rubik's Cubes.
You can learn things as a way, as I said earlier,
to de-stress, cure boredom,
learn how to help yourself express your feelings
through creative self-discovery.
I definitely can't do that when I draw,
the thing I'm probably worst at
because I never learned how.
Observe.
(paper rustling)
I was trying to express joy.
But there's classes on drawing.
This class is particularly intriguing to me.
Drawing on everything, discovering your creative voice,
taught by Shantell Martin.
It's filled with creative prompts that would motivate me
to keep drawing, like drawing while blindfolded,
drawing while you turn the paper,
kind of demystifies the whole process
and maybe I'll just have more confidence to do it.
I'm also going to check out some of them Rube Cube classes
so that I can increase or decrease my time.
See, I already forgot that I'm supposed to decrease it
instead of increase it, I need those classes.
And get that time down and finally impress my wife.
Did it, minute 20 seconds.
- Wow.
- Thanks for saving my marriage Skillshare.
And you can save your marriage too.
Or find motivation to do anything
with their thousands of classes
with a free two month trial of the premium membership
if you're one of the first 1,000 people
to follow the link and join.
Got to do it soon, be one of the first thousand.
Once you do it, then take a math class
and realize how awesome it was to be
one of the first thousand.
Just click the link below.
Thanks, Skillshare!
Now's the part where I say, like, subscribe, comment!
Also, did you know I have a second channel, WheezyNews,
where I make a video every Monday.
That's, these days has been like a half hour long
and it's also a podcast.
I've also been doing a podcast called,
MOVIED! with my friend Jake, where we talk about movies.
That's been going on for years.
But now that is also going to go on WheezyNews,
the second channel, video style.
As well as still remain podcast style.
As well as Harry Styles. No.
And to let you know about other videos that are coming up,
Chyna and I are doing a video about decluttering,
more in depth than our minimalism video we did previously.
We can do a video about trying to read more books
and somewhere down the line,
a video about drinking the proper amount of water every day,
which, whatever that means,
maybe no one even really knows for sure.
And a big thank you to John Green, one of the vlog brothers,
if you want to go to youtube.com/vlogbrothers
or read all of his books, if you haven't already.
I guess he's just the guy I go to and I want to talk about
a way to pass the time, like bubble baths or Rubik's Cubes.
Another one I should talk to him about.
If you want to support me on Patreon,
I do a video every single weekday over there,
just for Patreons.
A monthly live stream, a monthly minute-long banjo face.
(banjo music)
And other stuff.
That's linked right over here.
You can subscribe right there.
YouTube thinks you'll like that video.
Here's the video in which Chyna and I took
personality tests.
Thank you for watching.
(ding sound) (Rubik's Cube rustling)
(Craig breathes heavily)