Chris Bartlett - Quantum Country interview - 2019-03-08

Background: associate professor at ohio state in mathematical medicine. Genomics, neuroscience. A lot of statistics.

Learning QC to connect with his dad. Interested in QC because the math is linear algebra oriented instead of calculus-oriented. Played with IBM’s experience, read some paper. Realized he had foundational issues.

Tried to read MN’s book but struggled. Looking for resources to help access MN’s book.

Book explains things with a little more insight. Had been struggling with notation before.

On learning other things: recently tried learning “hard data” stuff.

• what are the classic books?
• what are the papers?
• gives a sense of deficit

When classic books failed: working on analyzing stuttering data. Got the classic book from the library. There was too much lingo. “I had to go back at a lower level and start working my way up.” Used YouTube, review papers.

First run:

• didn’t quite work, had to switch
• cards “come out of nowhere”
• interface was intuitive
  • (has used Anki for many things in the past)
• “it was kinda neat” “I liked the graphics”
• after the first 7 or 8 questions I felt an obligation to pay attention more “I felt like a test was coming up”
  • I liked that feeling because I’m motivated to learn it and retain it faster
• “for the second chapter, there was a section where I tanked them all. I thought: wow, I clearly didn’t get whatever I was supposed to get. That was very enlightening, so then I went back and asked ‘why am I not retaining this?’ I’ve never had that with a textbook before: usually the problems are at the end. You don’t get to really challenge yourself until you see an exercise.”
  • second or third section describing grover’s

On Anki:

• making the cards takes time
• “there are times when I don’t want to spend two hours making cards, so I don’t”
• “now that I’m not a student, it’s got to be important to take that time.”
• “I would not have made this many cards if I’d done it on my own.”

On the back and forth between prose and cards:

• if the material is easy, the cards feel like a disruption
• later in the essay, the cards feel like a welcome break

OK to skip cards?

• “target audience is probably not the people who skip stuff”
• “if I have a problem and I’m working on it, I’m going to stay another hour and finish it”

Getting a message:

• “it felt good” “it wasn’t a surprise”
• the first day, you had like 90 to do
• “if I’d known I would be in for this, I would have clicked the link later”
• sets maximum cards in Anki
• “40-50 cards is not that onerous”
• in the study session, it felt like the first time, so he didn’t have a strong sense of how long it would take
• on stopping partway: pressure is partially internal, but UI suggests it too

On notification messages:

• the numbers haven’t made much of a dent
• feels generic: doesn’t feel personalized

On the progress icons:

• he knew what they were
• they’re not that salient
• knew about the model

Marks cards via the buttons

• marks things correct if things are mostly accurate

Is it helping?

• essay on Grover’s was very helpful with the graphics