This is how one of my professors described it to me back in college, inspiring me to derive my own solution to the Rubik's cube. (And later for the "Square One" cube.) And I think the general concept is easy to describe to anyone: do something to the top and mess up the bottom, rotate the top and then do the exact opposite.

To me, it's much more satisfying than memorizing/learning existing solutions, even though I'll never be as fast as those that do leverage those solutions.

Either way, though, I'd recommend buying an inexpensive "speed cube" from Amazon, they are much less frustrating than the original design. (It doesn't bind up in the middle of a transformation.)