Fridrich Method: An Interesting Criticism

First of all let me just say it, I know all the cubers will laugh at this and all the speedcubers will know that I am not yet one of them, but still let me just say it- The Fridrich Method is a system of solving the Rubik's cube and a pretty good one while we are at it. So continue reading if you know what this is about, else feel free outrage at me for wasting your time.

The Fridrich method is the most used/popular system for solving the cube speedily. All the possible world records are held by practitioners of this system (why do I keep calling it a system ? vocabulary may be !). What we do in this method is beautiful in the sense that one is basically applying short hands (short cuts) to the "Beginners method". I mean in the beginners method- the first step is to build a cross as is in the Fridrich method. And than the beginner method takes forever to complete the first two layers which the Fridrich method does in one go (actually 4). Finally the Fridrich method offers two magical spells - OLL and PLL that together comprehend the last layer which the beginners method sucks at! 

Well these were the positives and mind it, these were really POSITIVE. Now what is about to follow is inspired from what Antony Snider said in one of his rare Youtube videos showing us (actually showing off) his own system. What he said was that when we are solving the cube using the CFOP (Fridrich) method and when we are doing the OLL, we are not being a genius in orienting all the top layer pieces all in one go but we are actually making things bad as in the next step we disturb everything we just did in order to have the pieces in the right places together with in the right orientation. Well he has a point. One can extend his way of looking at it to the whole CFOP and not just the OLL stage. How ? let us see.

Firstly we do the cross (A cliche according to me). Completing the cross is fine as there is nothing we are disturbing or redoing in order to achieve the cross due to this being the very first step. After the cross we do the F2L (the most beautiful part of this system and the one which stands tall intuitive, in a system which other wise has near a 100 algorithms). The F2L is beautiful, but notice while you are putting one of the four F2L pairs together we are constantly disturbing the cross and finally getting it to rest in the way it is meant to be but with a correctly placed F2L pair. My point is why build just only a cross when you know that it has to be disturbed in order to complete the  first two layers. After completing the First 2 Layers, we move on to the OLL stage. The OLL orients all the top layer pieces (more on that later). But notice when you are doing your OLL alg, you are actually disturbing some of your F2L pairs and manipulating them to circle back to their meant to be place but with that, orient everything in the last (top) layer. Let me repeat the question, why do just the F2L when you know that later on you have disturb (manipulate) it in order to achieve a solid color on top (Damn the vocabulary)? 

Now focusing more on what Snider said. Ones we have done the OLL we are on to the PLL stage. But before the implementation of the OLL alg, what we had was a top layer all messed up both in orientation and positioning (permutation). What OLL did was orient all the pieces (flip them correctly) caring less (rather nothing) about where each piece actually needed to go. And this little thing is taken care of by the PLL alg. But again, the PLL alg follows the same pattern i.e. disturb what was done just yet and manipulate it to achieve something extra together with the re-establishment of the previous step. 

So all I am asking is that why do something when you know that just after a quarter of a second (if you are Feilks Zemdegs) you will be disturbing it in order to achieve something extra. Its like writing a sentence in black plain ink (e.g. God I wish I were a speedcuber.) and than in order to highlight some portion of your sentence (say 'speedcuber') you erase that part (God I wish I were a __________) and then write it back in capitals (God I wish I were a SPEEDCUBER) when you could have easily written SPEEDCUBER (in blocks) to begin with. And its not just that, the whole repeating everything with little- little changes all gangs up together posing a serious  question to the efficacy of the whole system. I mean when You do the PLL, you think you are just disturbing the OLL right? but in reality you disturb the OLL which in turn disturbs the F2L which in turn disturbs the cross and you end up adjusting your cross for the third time + adjusting your F2L for the second time and adjusting your OLL for the first time,before finally solving the cube.

Its like after you have written -  "God I wish I were a SPEEDCUBER" , you again erase the "SPEEDCUBER" word cause you need it to be in some coloured font(SPEEDCUBER) and then after you have done that, you erase it again to rewrite it in italics(SPEEDCUBER) and then bold(SPEEDCUBER) and the pain goes on.

Its not like there no alternatives to this, its just that these alternatives takes a long time to master and get up to the same speed as the Fridrich method offers. Snider method it self is one of the alternatives but its not that quick. The Roux is another alternative and its quite fast too. In Roux in the last stage of the solve we only use the M and U slices which directly tells that we are not at all touching what we have acheived before, so there is that. But who am I to say anything, I use Fridrich alg while attempting to solve the cube using Roux!

Anger Management - My Design

For a particular emotion, there is almost always a place which is actually immune to that emotion. For instance (and I say this in outrageous generality), one can't fall in love in a bathroom. Similarly one can't get bored, again in a bathroom. One can't feel alone at home, etc, etc you get the point. But there is one such emotion that comes without notice and comes at all places (may be not the bathroom). This particular emotion it self has a short life but it can have long lasting and mostly nasty consequences. Don't get mad at me, I'm about to get to the point and my point  is ANGER.

Anger is a pretty open minded emotion, it accepts almost any reason as an invitation. For all I know, yesterday I was ready to throw my cell phone at my laptop (pretty much everything I have) just because none of them was charged. And knowing that I typed this article from my laptop, it clearly implies that I didn't. So how do I manage my anger? This is not an expert session, this is my design of anger management.

No, I don't start laughing when I am angry as that is an advance medical procedure meant only for actors playing doctors in a movie. What I do is a little time travel, not in the past searching for some happy place in memory, no. Instead I jump ahead. I pause for a moment and think of where I'll end up after I'll complete my great act of fury. Suppose I'm Bruce Banner and assume that I'm angry. (it kinda is a package deal isn't it?) Now instead of growing big and green- becoming the HULK, I'd just pause for a moment and think my way to the realiation that I wont be wearing any clothes after the display of my glorious powers. So I take the smart road and stick to my clothes.

Suppressing one's anger is never a part of this. The key to this is accepting what you feel. Some people do stupid stuff and blame it all on their state of anger. I on the other  hand accept my anger/ irritation/ frustration and decide not try anything stupid. To help my cause and to make this brand of anger management more fun, I focus on REVENGE. Revenge is nothing to me but a solution, a solution to my anger. I think of ways to avenge my state of happiness. Mostly people would destroy the source which made them angry, I don't. I reciprocate the scenario by inducing the exact amount of anger (may be more - who cares) onto the source. If it has been done properly, I end up relaxed and restored and the thing/ person that made me angry ends up as the HULK i.e. naked. My anger goes away because of the restored balance in the universe and to top it all I feel happy as I win!

So if some one breaks your toy (I couldn't think of a more appropriate example), you should not complain and ask that person to bring back your toy. This will not help as he/she is not gonna do it (either out of inability or out of evilness) and you will end up hitting that person in the face(destroying the source of your anger). What you do is be cool - focus on the revenge. You look for his/her toy or something else of equal importance (not more!) and damage it (not beyond repair). This way the other person is now angry and you are not (if you did it properly). The key is to avoid any dramatic edge to your acts. More cooler you are more the other person is effected.

And you end the exchanges by being like really polite and adding- "Are you angry? Why?"

Of course this is not the most unknown and morally correct thing to do, but as I said- its my design. All I do is take the smart road and restore balance to the universe, but what all of us should do instead is take the high road and have some FORGIVENESS!