Posts Tagged ‘discipline’

3 Sides!

Friday, November 27th, 2009

3-sides Completed on Rubik's CubeWell it’s only been 2 months since I managed to get 2 sides complete on my Rubik’s Cube. I’ve been leaving it out around my house so my roomies can play with it so every time I come around it’s in a different state than I left it.

I’ve managed to get 2 sides about 6-7 times altogether but I’m still not entirely certain of why. I keep having theories that don’t seem to work the next time! I have been finding some interesting algorithms along the way.

And then wham! Today I just managed to get 3 sides complete all around one corner. I’m not sure how useful this is really as a progression towards a completed cube. Different suggestions I’ve heard of how to go about finishing a cube don’t really mention this as a midway stage, but it’s still pretty exciting. It also feels like I’m slowly developing a deeper understanding of how the puzzle works and I love watching my mind try to narrow down the logic.

3-sides of a Rubik's Cube (incomplete)Taking a picture of my achievement made me realise that it’s difficult without mirrors to prove from a picture that a cube is solved. Here I include a photo of the reverse side where you can see that the remainder is still unsolved.

2 sides!

Monday, September 28th, 2009
Red and white sides of a Rubik's Cube completed.

Red and white sides of a Rubik's Cube completed.

After about 2 weeks worth of effort I’ve managed to complete 2 adjacent sides of a Rubik’s Cube on my own! I remember doing this as a child but had no recollection of how I had managed to do it back then.

I find one side easy, but even now I’ve got some doubts about whether I can reproduce the 2 sides very easily. We shall see! I bought the cube recently when I heard someone at work reminiscing. I decided that I wanted to see if I could solve it on my own and learn how to reproduce the solution.

To that end I’ve been leaving the cube out in a common area of the house and letting people mess it up for me. Every time I come back it’s in a different configuration so I’m forced to rethink my next plan of attack.

It amazes me that there are so many combinations from such a simple little device and that so much confusion can be found with a few moves. Slowly my mind is starting to understand the effects of certain actions.

On towards 3 and more sides!

The benefit of discipline

Sunday, October 8th, 2006

I’ve had various struggles with discipline throughout my life. I wrote before about keeping focus, putting things off, and getting enough sleep.

Discipline requires dedication and decision making. Dedication is necessary for maintaining effort during adversity, and decision making is needed to ensure there is no stalling because of uncertainty. Both dedication and decision making demand a certain degree of belief in why the goal is worth striving for in the first place.

And so we come to meditation.

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Focus

Monday, September 18th, 2006

There’s a funny thing about getting things done… you need to stay focused to do it.

That’s not to say that one who isn’t focused won’t accomplish anything, just that they’re unlikely to have much control over what they get in the end.

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