The maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik's Cube is 26, or less depending how you count.1 Speedcubers do around 50 moves for a solve.
How wasteful.
Obviously, less moves is faster.
Right?
But the brain has processing limits and delays. Using well built muscle memory on easily drilled algorithms is always going to be faster then finding and then solving the optimal algorithm.
There are people who compete on fewest moves, but it's a different category which is less well known for a reason.
Do you think you can do better than the average competitive speedcuber on optimizing?
No?
Then make your routine tasks actually routine.
I don't mean doing the dishes, I mean the tiny muscle memory tasks.
Learn keyboard shortcuts, because you cannot muscle memory mouse movement in the same way. But learning takes time, and it has diminishing returns.
I have a script which opens a website based on a short alias.2 Opening the terminal to run a script to run a browser is slower than just opening the browser, right?
The browser has so many utilities and shortcuts for typing URLs faster.3 My muscle memory for opening the browser is not slow, and most sites I need do not have particularly long URLs. But typing those will never be in the same order of magnitude as my muscle memory for opening a terminal and typing a one argument command.
I do that for everything.
Even if I have it memorized, processing which site ends with .com or .org and typing punctuation are always going to take me just a little bit longer.
So I stopped trying to learn the quirks of browsers and URLs, replaced it all with a single script. It's so much faster.
You can do the same, and not just on a computer. I have muscle memory for taking out a notepad and clicking my pen, for turning on a flashlight, for taking a jacket off under a backpack while walking.
We all have impeccable muscle memory for checking our phones and finding the bathroom light switch.
If you could make any motion perfectly routine, what would do you want to do faster?
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Nightly Notes
This is the first post I've had to draft (not just edit) on a phone due to scheduling constraints. I had the time for once, but not the logistics.
I don't recommend the experience.
I'm not done with this topic, and I'm not sure if it is really about muscle memory or speed or habit, but I can't write it all like this.
Typing is muscle memory too, and my phone typing is years behind the curve.
More for another day,
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Nerds making games into math is always a good time. Have you see what the Game of Life people are up to? ↩
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It also does search engines because which site uses q vs query parameters is a nightmare to remember, but that's besides the point. I would use it even for just short website URLs. ↩
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I don't use autocomplete for several reasons, that's a story for another day. For now, suffice to say you can't muscle memory a non deterministic completion to nearly the same degree. ↩