HP Innovation Issue 17: Spring 2021 | Page 19

BEAUTIFUL MINDS
OPPOSITE PAGE : PHOTOGRAPH BY AZAZELLO BQ COURTESY OF UNSPLASH . THIS PAGE : PHOTOGRAPH BY THIERRY TRONNEL / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES s a professor of architecture striving to help his

Cubed : The Puzzle of Us All , is out now . By ALISON BEARD

AB / Your father was a flight engineer . How did that influence your career choices ?
ER / Father and boy , parents and kids — we are based on them , both through our genes and by seeing how they live . He was not a person who wanted to push me in any direction . I actually spent more time with my mother and was closer to her . My father was working in the countryside , but I saw his work , and it was important to me . After finishing his education at a university in Budapest , he and some other young engineers decided they wanted to manufacture airplanes , gliders , and other products . So they applied for a loan and got one , and they built a factory , which I got to visit .
Did you grow up tinkering with things ? I was an ordinary boy , wanting to do everything possible — and not possible . I climbed trees and had fun in other ways that weren ’ t allowed but were exciting to me . And I was curious and tried to make things . Nothing special .
Who else has inspired or influenced you in your career ? I ’ m impressed not by people but by what they ’ ve done or what they are doing . I admire literature , art , engineering — how things are accomplished . So I can ’ t name people , just what they ’ ve created . I hope that my fame , if I have any , is not because I ’ m different from others but because of the Cube and its content .
You studied art then moved on to architecture . Why ? I started in middle school with painting , sculpture , and so on , but I went to university to study architecture because , in my view , that is art as well . Next to the practical , it has the aesthetics .
The architect and puzzle inventor Erno Rubik reflects on creativity , problem solving , and his iconic invention .
And then you became a professor . What makes for a good teacher ? It ’ s important to share what you know with students but more important to discover their capabilities and help them find out who they are and what they ’ re able to do . Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge . It is building a capability to find new possibilities in novel circumstances .
Where did you get the idea for the Rubik ’ s Cube ? I was interested in geometry , construction , and working in three dimensions and looking for a tool to explain 3D transformations . That led me to discover the Cube . I don ’ t like the term “ invent ” because it ’ s really just finding what is already there but not visible or tangible to others . You know , another person can take a walk on your road and see stones . But you might see that one has the potential to be a diamond even though its qualities are hidden . And hopefully you also have the patience to find what is inside .
How did you approach the development of the Cube ? First , I needed to understand the nature of the object and how to make it work . I used my hands , simple tools , the design school workshops . I sometimes used food because it ’ s easy to work with . That took a few months . And then there was the process of transforming it into a product and putting it on the market . That took three years . I started in 1974 ,
HP / INNOVATION / SPRING 2021 17