[dpcan]

One Christmas I got my ~6 yr old son a Rubik's Cube. He loved it and carried it around for a couple days. Then I took it from him to explain how you're supposed to mix it up and solve it. He cried when I couldn't get it back together! I felt so terrible. I spent about a week watching videos, reading move patterns, and practicing at night, and finally figured it out.

I have to get out a cube every couple of months and solve it or I forget. It's funny how a few of the patterns still to work from some strange muscle memory or something - and I only have to think about what piece I need where, and then my hands just do it.

The best part of knowing how to solve one is when you come across a mixed up cube at someone's home or a business... they think I'm some kind of genius, yet really I just memorized patterns to put pieces where I need them. But who am I to tell them what to think ;)

[TodPunk]

I once picked up a rubik's cube because I thought it would be related to a problem I was trying to solve at work, given the kinds of manipulations you could do on it. Turns out it wasn't at all, but I did learn a couple ways to solve it and got to the point where I could solve it in sub-minute times reliably, just by doing it when someone had messed it up from my desk (and they did this a lot).

It was not at all useful as a skill but it's a decent social experience to teach someone how to solve it, and as you say it makes people think you're a genius for some reason (HA!). Well worth the $10 you would spend on a new one.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

We buy these[1] $2 cubes ten at a time and hand them out to the kids on the street, cube pusher style, get 'em hooked early ya know. Well, not really, but we do give them away to people we meet who seem interested in learning how to solve the 3x3x3. They're surprisingly high quality and smooth for two dollars.

1. http://www.championscubestore.com/index.php?main_page=produc...