[michaelt]

> I'm also not sure I agree with the statement that they're "already solving the cube".

I think it depends on whether you think the record ought to represent a chess-style intellectual feat or a physical dexterity feat.

In the inspection time they've clearly started the intellectual feat - just not the dexterity one.

[cyphar]

You don't plan out the entire solve in your head during inspection. At most you plan out the cross and maybe the first F2L pair, the rest is dealing with what you see when you see it (so for the majority of the solve it is a question of dexterity, pattern recognition, and look-ahead ability).

My issue with saying "they're already solving the cube" is the implication that more inspection time would let you get even shorter solve times and I don't think that's the case (unless you went really ridiculous and gave everyone an hour to do a smallest-moves solve on paper).

(There are also practical issues with this kind of format that nsilvestri pointed out that I hadn't originally considered.)

[muti]

Note for others reading this thread, "fewest moves in an hour" is a WCA official event which is the natural conclusion when taking inspection time to the extreme.

I think it is one of the more interesting and underappreciated events, though it likely gets fewer entries due to the time commitment.

https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/#article-E-...

[hyperhopper]

Also, due to muscle memory, etc, a smallest move solve might not even necessarily be the fastest solve by time.

[spadros]

But to imply that the inspection time doesn’t affect the solve time at all seems totally disingenuous. I agree with the thesis of the video. “Time to solve a cube” should mean exactly that; how long, from first seeing the cube in front of you, it takes you to solve it.

[Blendtherules]

I don't think I implied that the inspection time doesn't affect the solve time, but I'm learning a lot about how people interpret the words you say in a monologue. For example, I totally misspoke when I said "they're solving it in their head", they are... but not completely, and that's what many people took my words to mean which was not my intention, lessons learned.