26 सितंबर 2026

"Cube enthusiasts... explain the plummeting age of champions by pointing to kids’ enthusiasm for the puzzle, their ability to learn quickly and that they simply have more time to practice."

"Many are from China, which has schools that teach speedy Rubik’s Cube solving.... Yunzhi practices two to three hours a day, her mother told Red Star News of Chengdu, China...."


And I'm not thinking oh, isn't she cute? like most of the commenters over there. I'm thinking: 1. Child abuse, and 2. A separate "women's" division is bullshit. 

The "men's" record — i.e., the record — is 3.51 seconds, almost 20% less.

These kids who train for hours a day in Rubik’s Cube solving — what are they really being trained for? It made me think of this viral video:
@chinaminutes 😭A third-grade student in Tianjin, China, had a full-on existential crisis while doing his homework after thinking a little too far ahead about his future Through tears, the boy worried that when he grows up, he’ll simply become a “wage slave” working for the rich. His mother tried to reassure him that studying hard could lead to a good job — but he wasn’t convinced, telling her that was just “imagination,” not reality. The moment quickly went viral on Chinese social media, with netizens joking that he had become “enlightened too early” and was already thinking like someone decades older. 💭Is he too woke for his age, or does he just understand the future a little too clearly?👇🏼 #funnykids #relatablevideos #schoollife #existentialcrisis #growingup ♬ original sound - China Minutes

From the comments at TikTok: "This is why I'll stay child-free. No need for my beautiful non-existent kids to suffer."

20 टिप्‍पणियां:

Money Manger ने कहा…

I recently saw a model of the cube with detachable and re-attachable color squares. It made the puzzle a lot easier to solve.

Eric the Fruit Bat ने कहा…

Solving the puzzle itself was always the least interesting thing about the Rubik's Cube.

n.n ने कहा…

Eye-hand coordination, predictive skills, and manual dexterity.

john mosby ने कहा…

A separate women's division is bullshit? Isn't there well documented research that males are on average better at spatial awareness?

I say this as a guy who is a little below the male mean in this area. Unless I concentrate, do things deliberately, and find ways to 'cheat' by using other skills such as memorization, my navigation, body mechanics, and general coordination suffer.

Also think of the stereotype that men hate asking for directions.

A women's division for a spatial awareness contest makes as much sense as a women's division for contact sports. CC, JSM

Temujin ने कहा…

Wow...the kid in that video is a future Arthur Miller or Joseph Heller. At the very least he's stumbled onto the realization of so many 25 year old American baristas. This damned degree didn't protect me from work.

I wonder in which cube division the Chinese place the trans kids?

Duke Dan ने कहा…

This was culturally interesting in the early 80s when I was 13. The local mall had a contest and I made it though the first round with 43 seconds. My cube exploded in the second round (they weren’t made for speed back then)

Eva Marie ने कहा…

Humans have the extraordinary ability to turn everything fun to unfun. That includes games, leisure, sex, children, and life.

rhhardin ने कहा…

Men are faster, stronger and smarter.

Eva Marie ने कहा…

Men, what would we do without them.

n.n ने कहा…

We wouldn't have women without men... and vice versa.

Original Mike ने कहा…

"The "men's" record — i.e., the record — is 3.51 seconds"

I don't understand how that's possible.

Lazarus ने कहा…

Tell junior that an education will give him lots of things to think about and lots of places to go in his imagination while he toils for the man. That may not be much, but it's not nothing.

Rabel ने कहा…

If it makes them as happy as that little girl we should abuse more children.

n.n ने कहा…

Physiological differences. But, why recognize men and women categorically? Why not bloc rights in weight divisions or similar?

loudogblog ने कहा…

"This is why I'll stay child-free. No need for my beautiful non-existent kids to suffer."

If you actually believe that if you had a child that they would spend more time suffering than being happy, it's probably a good thing that you don't want to be a parent.

loudogblog ने कहा…

rhhardin said...
"Men are faster, stronger and smarter."

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better... stronger... faster.

Jim at ने कहा…

*I made it though the first round with 43 seconds.*

My fastest back then was 51.

I still have a Cube and solve it from time to time just to make sure I can still do it. Often after having a few beverages.

Original Mike ने कहा…

"Men, what would we do without them."

You'd be living in a damp cave.
Maybe you'd have fire.

Dave ने कहा…

"A separate "women's" division is bullshit."

“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’ ...

Dave ने कहा…

My point is that societies place various burdens on men and women at different times. In this age, in the USA, the woman's burden is the separate women's division of Rubik's Cube solving in China.

Something else that occurs to me often, is that the term adult only conveys information about biological age. In terms of mental/emotional maturity, there is no such thing as an adult.

All of us are children. When you start looking at people in that way, that they are all children, perhaps THAT would be the beginning of adulthood.

But first, you'd have to recognize the child that is you walking around in what appears to be an adult.

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