"No work was unworthy or undeserving for him..."

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week!  As some of you may know, my son got really into Rubik’s Cube this year. For a bit of time, we both did – on a snow day back in winter, we spent the better part of the day learning how to solve a Rubik’s cube using youtube videos, some trial and error, and a healthy dose of frustration. My journey ended there, but he has continued plugging away trying to solve different shapes, different sizes, and constantly twiddling his fingers around a colorful shape.

So I was particularly delighted to read this article earlier this month, celebrating the famous puzzle’s 50th birthday. Its inventor, Ernő Rubik, was born in Budapest, Hungary, 80 years ago this week, to a flight engineer father and a poet mother. He specialized in sculpture for secondary school, and attended the Budapest University of Technology to study architecture. While he was a professor at Budapest College of Applied Arts, he started building out the designs for what would later dazzle everyone from toddlers to retirees alike. He claimed that he was searching for a good task for his students, while preparing a course on descriptive geometry. It was a relatively simple structure, which first started with blocks of wood and rubber bands, which he dubbed the “Magic Cube”. After playing with it for a few months off-and-on, he eventually solved the cube for the first time by completing the corners first (not the way I learned, for what it's worth!).

Eventually, Rubik licensed it to a toy company, and it moved from a protype to mass production by 1980. The rest, as they say is history. Rubik's contributions went on to extend beyond his inventions to include a deep commitment to promoting STEM education. He founded the Rubik's Studio in 1983, which focuses on developing new puzzles and games that encourage learning through play. Additionally, Rubik is an advocate for innovation and education, often participating in conferences and events aimed at inspiring the next generation of inventors and thinkers. His legacy is not only that of a prolific inventor but also of an educator and advocate who has profoundly influenced how we approach problem-solving and creativity. Rubik later attributed to his curiosity and creativity to his father, stating:

“Beside him I learned a lot about work in the sense of a value-creating process which has a target, and a positive result too. Both figuratively and literally he was a person capable of 'moving a hill'. There was nothing that could prevent him from doing what he decided or bringing a project to a completion, if necessary even with his own hands. No work was unworthy or undeserving for him.”

The beauty of the puzzle is really just how startlingly simple it can seem, and how utterly complex it is in actuality – a simple 3x3 cube has 43 quintillion permutations (that’s 43 billion billion). And yet, with some persistence and thought (and maybe some youtube videos), I truly think anyone could solve it – and would love for our incredible scholars in Zambia to give it a try on my next visit. If nothing else, it was a lovely way to spend a snowy Tuesday with my son, both of us throwing the cube on the floor at some moments, and shrieking with utter delight the next. Unlike Rubik perhaps, it was my son that inspired me to give it a try though.