Linchuan Zhang - Quantum Country interview - 2019-06-19

“Stalwart” user

Synthesis + highlights

I had some trouble conducting this one—he was a bit odd to talk to.

Linchuan is a Topos-style autodidact. He started using Anki a few months ago and is studying QC mostly to see its memory system in action.

It’s working well for him, except for a few topics that he felt he didn’t understand thoroughly. He was particularly stuck on how to apply the discussion of vector and matrix representations of qubits / gates to two-qubit systems and CNOT. He thought that maybe e.g. |00> was 1 0 ; 1 0 or maybe 1 0 1 0, and he was trying to find corresponding matrix definitions of CNOT that made that make sense. He couldn’t, so he kept getting a lot of the latter cards wrong.
He does believe that the system works, and that if he kept going with it, he’d end up with long-term retention of all this stuff. He feels the time investment is a good trade.

He understands the levels and the progress tracker, though he’s not highly motivated by them, I think in part because he doesn’t quite trust that they map onto comprehension.

Raw notes

• “Lin-shuan”
• How’d you find it?
  • Into auto-didactics, lives in a group house focused on self-study. People there linked to it
  • Mostly studying because interested in SRS
• Started using Anki after reading MN’s article
  • “I couldn’t find that many useful things to do.”
  • How’d it feel relative to other times you’d tried to use others’ Anki decks?
  • With Anki decks, it works when very little context is needed
  • QC “feels much better.”
    • But if he doesn’t understand, “it doesn’t help much, and it’s harder to maintain.”
• First impressions of review area
  • “It worked well!”
• Levels on cards
  • Had to jog his memory, but knew what it meant
  • Had correct model for spacing system
  • Emotional connection to the levels?
  • Not strongly
• Progress tracker
  • He understood what it’s about
  • “For the earlier concepts, it’s very clear that I know the material”
  • “But SRS is not quite enough for me with things I don’t fully understand”
  • Tried reading again and searching
  • How does it feel to be over a couple weeks on the tracker?
  • “Pretty good! I don’t know how to be calibrated.”
  • Initially, the progression was fast, and it slowed down.
• On emails
  • “If I’m bored at work I’ll do it”
  • “I dedicate Sundays to studying anyway”
  • Time burden: “It’s not significant. Just a few minutes a day. … Seems like a pretty good trade.”
• What’s your feeling of your grasp of the cards at the 1-month level?
  • “I feel comfortable saying I know it.”
  • “Some of them are facts I can regurgitate as necessary.”
• What’s your outlook on what would happen if you kept going?
  • “Pretty high chance that I’d continue using it.”
  • “I expect that I’d remember these cards.”
  • “I need to dedicate some extra time to understanding some topics I’m confused about.”

Prep notes

• Has completed 15 review sessions
• Registered about a month ago
• Read across about 4 days, doing review sessions each day
• Has read both essays
• Usually complies immediately
• Card quantiles: 1 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5

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