I’ve always known that it’s a matter of learning the algorithm. It’s not that people who can solve it are geniuses, it’s just portrayed that way on TV. I came into one and really wanted to say I knew how to do it. So I went to a tutorial and practiced. Over and over. There are some basic steps: white face, second row, yellow cross, yellow centers in their place, yellow corners in their place, and finish. Each one of these steps has a set of about 8 moves that you do to get to the next one. It’s just a matter of memorizing those sets of moves.
Once I memorized them through repetition, I practiced even more, taking it with me on my morning walks, doing it during meetings, any time I could just to get the patterns memorized.
It takes about 3 minutes to do it, and I’m using the beginner’s method, but that’s all I ever wanted. I can say I know how to solve a Rubik’s cube, or if I forget the patterns in the future I can say I used to know.