What A Rubik’s Cube Taught Me About Learning Things

Delayed gratification is a thing.

It’s a difficult thing but if you can get it right, it’s a helluva thing.

I recently learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. I wish I meant that I am smart and mathematically gifted but it does not.

It means that I took the time and paid enough attention to learn a series of algorithms that allow me to solve the cube. That’s it. I paid attention and spent the time learning a series of moves that unlocked the solution to any Rubik’s cube.

Imagine if everything was that simple.

I actually believe that everything is that simple. If you want to learn a new language you have to pay enough attention for long enough to learn the rules of the language and then be able to speak it.

If you want to learn how to code you need to pay enough attention for long enough to learn the set of rules that apply to that particular coding language.

If you want to better understand how interpersonal relationships work you have to read about them, engage in them, pay enough attention to them and then adapt to your requirements.

Just pay attention for long enough to learn the thing you are trying to learn. Most of us get distracted, frustrated, side-tracked or just plain give up before we’ve cracked the code.

It took me about two weeks of spending 15 minutes every day watching a Youtube video on repeat to learn how to crack the Rubik’s cube code. That was it. Two weeks. Nifty trick to learn that cost me the equivalent of about 2.5hrs of focused attention.