Don’t always finish what you’ve started if it doesn’t make sense to

It’s easy to “quit”, but it’s not as easy when you feel like you need to “prove something to yourself” senselessly

"Hey, Jayden, thank you again for these mails.

I just got a question about this one, since I just started to learn Pi ZBLL cases (just the beginning); do you recommend me to continue on learning the 72 cases? O would it be better to learn other algs first? I plan to take Sune, Antisune and H ZBLL cases after I had learned the rest (Pi, U, S and T) ´cause (I think)  those OLLs are fast enough to do both OLL and PLL instead of learning all ZBLLs at once: I mean, I probably should learn ZBLL cases for those OLL which are slower.

  How should I start learning new algs? I am sub-10, almost sub-9, just know OLL and PLL (and COLL for one handed). What do you recommend me to start with?

Regards, Gabriel"

In short, this guy wants to know if he should finish learning Pi ZBLL now that he's started on it 

Now, normally you might expect me to be all "hurr durr Pi is not objectively optimal hurr durr", and of course I still do indeed think Pi ZBLL might actually be worse than every other ZBLL set (sunes included)

But...

After letting the actual tone of the question sink in for a moment, I realized what was really going on beneath the surface

The surface level answer to the surface level question is pretty simple, and not exactly the most exciting thing to talk about

Learn U T and L ZBLL sets instead (ideally in that order), and then ignore everything else for a period of time while you get used to actually USING U T and L

But what about the underlying reasons for asking this question? Is there anything going on there?

I'm certainly not one to whip out my receding hairline and go full armchair psychology Dr Phil on people, but I do have an inkling of a feeling as to why this question was asked in the first place

Now, you, the person reading this right now

Have you ever committed yourself to a long term goal, only to realise that maybe it isn't the right path for you?

This could be cubing related, like committing to learning full OLLCP because that's just the kind of badass you are

OR, it could be something outside of cubing, like committing to learning 2,000 digits of Pi

Whatever that long term goal may be, eventually you find your thoughts are filled with all kinds of self doubt and second guessing

"Damn, these OLLCP algorithms are literally making me slower"

Or if you're the noncubing example

"I don’t feel like learning the 1,000th digit of Pi right now, why did I even start doing this? I HAVE to finish, but I really don’t want to” 

Point being, you start to question what you were really aiming for in the first place 

Did you really just want to know OLLCP for the sake of it, or was there an underlying desire to be faster, or even more well known for achieving such a feat?

Did you really want to learn a bunch of numbers for fun & because it’s something that titillates you personally, or are you just trying to prove an asinine point to yourself or someone else?

The more honest with yourself you can be about your goals and aspirations, the easier it will be to align yourself with the right activities that, over time, bring you closer and closer to your goals

If you want to be faster, but you tell yourself that you only care about solving in a way that's fun-and-unique-and-not-like-the-other-girls, then you'll choose activities in line with what you tell yourself instead of activities that are in line with what you really WANT

"OK Jay, thanks for the tips, but what the hell does this have to do with the first question?!?!"

Well, when it comes to learning ZBLL, a lot of people unfortunately do it for the wrong reasons

Instead of wanting to improve their LSLL a small amount, often cubers will simply want the attention and recognition that comes with being a Certified ZB Solver

As such, the struggles that come with learning ZBLL, like going months without seeing any real results, having trouble remembering new algs, forgetting old algs, and messing up cases in solves and everything else

Those hurdles suck already, but when all you really care about is recognition and attention, those hurdles are DEVASTATING

I'm talking "I want to quit cubing altogether" levels of devastating

Now, because the person who asked the question is already planning on not using ZBLL for some cases, I can already tell that he's doing it for the right reasons

But, there's more to this than just having your wants and ambitions aligned before you start doing certain things

Sometimes you start doing something, realize that although it IS aligned with what you want, you’ve started off on the wrong foot, but STILL feel obligated to see it through, alllll the way to the bitter end and do it “your way”...

When that happens, it can be a real blow to the ego if you "quit", because no one likes to see themselves as a quitter

At the same time however, you don't exactly want to see it to the bitter end either, because you have a good feeling that you won't like the outcome

So you get stuck

This is where wisdom can pay dividends, because cutting your losses short and moving your attention to activities with higher ROI is clearly the right move

By reframing the event in your mind as "moving to something with higher ROI" instead of seeing it as "you quitting because ur a quitter lol", doing the right thing/doing the smart thing suddenly becomes a whole lot easier

Being able to learn from your mistakes is one thing, and if you're exploring new terrain that's never been explored before, then you have literally no choice but to learn from your mistakes 

Most of the time however, there are plenty of other people who have done what you want to do, and you should learn from their mistakes instead 

Me for example, I actually learned full T U L H and Pi ZBLL

At the time when I learned them, there weren't enough people who had done it before me to really learn much from it (it didn't help that most of the people who DID learn ZB at the time were clout chasers)

Nowadays however, we've seen what does and doesn't work at the top level when it comes to ZBLL

T U and L are all mostly awesome to the point where recommending full TUL isn't hard

H is OK because low alg count, but definitely a few meh cases in the adjswap and diag CP's

Sune and Antisune are surprisingly OK, but 2gen 7mover into PLL is already kind of OP, so it’s going to be a very long time until we see these ZBLL’s used at top level successfully, assuming we ever DO see it (I don’t think we will)

Pi is great when recog is easy and the alg is good, but absolutely god AWFUL when the recog sucks and the alg follows suit

Here's an easy to remember "broke, woke, bespoke" style meme to remember the key point here

• Broke - Make mistakes without learning from them (or they never make a mistake because they never do anything)

• Woke - Make mistakes and learn from them

• Bespoke - Observe other peoples mistakes and learn from them

As long as you're in the Woke/Bespoke camp of thought, you'll be fine

If you're like this reader, then you could either take my suggestion of "avoid Pi ZBLL" which is based on my personal experience with the cases being hit or miss (mostly miss)

Or

You could learn it anyways, and learn the hard way

Learning the hard way isn't always bad, and sometimes it's unavoidable

Even when it is avoidable, it might be better to make that mistake anyways because you'll learn better from it

Still, if we're talking being optimal, then ideally you should be able to learn from other peoples mistakes BEFORE you make them yourself