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group theory fag here. I came up with a quasi-intuitive method for solving 3x3 in 6th or 7th grade. First you solve two opposite sets of 4 corners (I'd say "solve" the 2x2 but that's not the point of what you're doing), slot in the edges between those sets of corners to make two complete layers opposite each other, and then solve the center edges with very simple shuttle moves. Most of the rudimentary piece movement I discovered from random experimentation, time, and autistic retention for colors and orientation in 3d space. Once I had the vision of how to create a system of two "frames" for corners and center slices it was pretty simple to pull it all together into a consistent technique. I had the cube for like a year at first, but it probably took me six more months once I really started trying.
I returned to cubing very briefly as an adult mostly just remembering my childhood experience and wondering if I actually figured out a unique way to do it. Turns out someone else figured it out and it's now a technique a few hobby-cubers teach and endorse as an intuitive solve method. They're a lot more fancy about their "2x2" method and they're much more efficient with multi-tasking the edges but long and short it's the same method.
I'm too much of a hobby scrub to care about improving my times so I haven't adopted any of the modern improvements. I capped out around 27 seconds single best. My rusty average right now would probably be just under a minute. I'm much more interested in different types of ways to cut a cube instead of bigger ones or doing them quickly. I just enjoy having them on my desk and discovering moves here and there even if I'm never going to devise methods for all of them.
