Trust the algorithm

“I taught a ten year old how to do it yesterday, so you should be able to get it, Auntie Rebecca”.

That’s Alfie. My oldest friend’s son. We’re sitting at the kitchen table, and he’s teaching me how to do a Rubix Cube. A thing that, for 42 years I just assumed was a matter of understanding the complexity and intricacy of how each of the squares moves, but, as it turns out, is just a series of movements that you repeat.

A formula that you plug in. Or, as Alfie calls it, an algorithm.

He teaches me the first steps until my brain starts to scramble. “I need a break” I tell him, and borrow a Rubix cube to practice step 1 until I’ve got it from multiple angles. That’s the thing about a formula— you can’t just do it once to learn it. You need to do it over and over and over again, until the formula works no matter the configuration you’re presented with.

It reminds me of the school subjects I loved as a teenager, which, were things like algebra, trigonometry, logic.

Problem. Formula.

Find the angl…