I thought this would be an unreality for me. But who knew how easy it is to solve a Rubik’s cube?

I watched The Speed Cubers on Netflix and knew about the sport. I assumed it required an insane amount of memorization, but when my daughter asked if she could learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube, I put on my “Dad Face” and told her she could do anything.

I bought a “speed cube” for her, nothing too fancy, but it was better than Rubik’s. I then started watching The Wired’s 30-minute YouTube on how to solve a Rubik’s cube.

Meanwhile, my daughter seemed overwhelmed and didn’t want to take the time to learn the steps. I refused to step. If this random journalist can solve a Rubik’s cube, so can I.

OK. But How?

The simple fact is that there is a brute force way to solve every Rubik’s cube. If you move your fingers fast enough and get lucky, you can probably solve it this way in about a minute; not close to the five-second world record, but still an impressive feat.

My success pushed my daughter further away, but my son saw it was possible and took on the challenge. Before I knew it, I set my personal best at 1m39s, and my son kept pushing himself.

Once my wife was willing to attempt it, my daughter jumped back in the game.

My youngest was excited when I got a nicer cube with paper instructions. She no longer needed to ask me for algorithm help. It didn’t take much longer for our whole family to be able to solve a Rubik’s cube.

I had every intention of improving my times, but life took over, and these forty-year-old fingers are no match for the future generation. I’m no world record holder, but I can solve a Rubik’s cube!