struggling with cubes

What? I continue with the mindless making. I chose origami cubes because there is no glue or cutting used. I found some paper that was about 25 years old and decided to use that. I found this video on how to make the cubes and started.

There are many steps to making this cube, and something deceptively simple like the cube has many steps in the making. If I followed the video exactly without thinking, I was able to make the cube successfully. But there were too many steps for me to remember and when I tried to make independently, it just did not work. There is a very detailed and particular way of making the cube and any variation only led to frustration. I eventually made about 16 not very precise cubes.

Did I actually learn to make the cube? Did I know? Did I know how the paper folded to make the cube? No.

What was happening while I made the cubes? There was the irritation of having to follow the steps precisely with no possibility of deviation. There were small, enjoyable steps in realization, but not enough to make independently.

So what? Following a recipe leads to the desired outcomes, but not necessarily to knowledge. After several repetitions, one can memorize them, but how does one actually know?

What next? Maybe work with a couple of other forms in origami. And move on to geometric construction of polyhedrons.