Tom Coleman - Quantum Country interview - 2019-06-13

“Stalwart” user

Synthesis + highlights

• Tom’s a PhD computer scientist who’s tried to learn QC a few times. Motivated mostly by curiosity.
• My big takeaway: he knew what the levels / progress chart meant but didn’t really care. He didn’t really believe emotionally that it was working. That’s not great.
• He says he really would value remembering these cards forever (well, most of them), but he’s not yet convinced that this approach will lead to that.
• Interplay between reviewing and reading worked well for him. He went back and forth a bunch, across multiple devices, with only occasional hiccups.

“Not only did the reviewing jog my memory of what I learned last time but it also prompted me to keep reading.”* On the interplay between prose and reviews:
“Maybe sometimes I just want to keep reading. Like I don’t want to answer questions right now. Especially when sometimes there are a lot of questions, and they’re a bit duplicative. Then sometimes I’m like ‘go away!’”* On knowing that he has most of his cards at the two week level:
“I guess that feels good. … It’s difficult to not feel a little bored. Ach! This question again! I intellectually know why you’re showing it to me again, but I’m like: haven’t I already answered this a dozen times?”* Wasn’t really having any problems about “memorizing before he’d learned.”

• Fun quote:

“Maybe one day I’ll be doing quantum computing research, and I’ll be like ‘thanks guys!’”

Prep notes

• Registered 04/22.
• Read the essay over 7(!) sessions, spanning about a month.
• Was quite compliant with study session the whole time, eventually racking up 16.
• Average card level is 5.25 (between 2 weeks and a month)
• Median card level is 6 (1 month)
• Card level quartiles: 2 / 5 / 6 / 6 / 6
• Has read all of QCVC and 19% of /search.

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Raw notes

• How did he find QC?
  • Came in through /search. Came in via Hacker News.
  • “I started reading it and I was a bit confused about everything, and you mention that it’s a good idea to read the introduction first… so I did.”
  • “I did quantum physics back when I was starting uni. I didn’t understand it at all at the time. They teach it to you but you don’t have the maths. … I’m just learning rules here. I don’t know why. … I watched some videos a couple years ago, and then the math felt completely intuitive. The physics of it is still quite puzzling.”
  • What videos? “I think it’s a Stanford lecturer. Found it on YouTube.”
• Why read about QC?
  • I’m a software engineer, and I did a PhD in CS, and I’ve always been interested in QC. I’ve never managed to understand Shor’s algorithm. So I always thought it would be great to understand that.
• Getting through the first one took me a few weeks.
  • How did the interplay between the reviewing and reading work?
  • “It worked pretty well! The reviewing is good because it reminds you to go back and read some more.”
  • “Not only did the reviewing jog my memory of what I learned last time but it also prompted me to keep reading.”
  • “But that works best when the things you’re reviewing really do remind you of what you just did. Some more conceptual sections don’t have so many questions. Sometimes they feel a bit forced. … In those cases, you don’t get that same rebooting of where you were. If you ask me 10 questions about what exactly those gates were, and then I answer them, I know exactly what we were doing. The abstract questions make it a little harder to get back into it.”
  • Did the continue button work for you?
  • “Usually worked pretty well.”
  • Has 2 computers, which sometimes makes it a little confused. Generally it was good!
• What do you feel when we interrupt you in this essay?
  • The first time:
  • “I’m feeling confused and also a little interested. What is this all about?”
  • Distraction, but in a good way. We do a good job of explaining.
  • “Maybe sometimes I just want to keep reading. Like I don’t want to answer questions right now. Especially when sometimes there are a lot of questions, and they’re a bit duplicative. Then sometimes I’m like ‘go away!’”
  • Proposes that maybe we could add questions in during review but which weren’t in the reading.
• Progress:
  • Had to jog his memory a little bit, and “the thing moves across.”
  • The chart:
  • “I’m guessing it’s trying to summarize across all the questions for each chapter … your estimate of how long I will retain … my average retention. And as I review more often I move to the right.”
  • How’s it make you feel?
    • Probably haven’t done enough SRS to buy in completely. In theory it works, but “I don’t have that personal relationship yet. I unconsciously believe it, maybe.”
  • On knowing that he has cards at the two week level:
  • “I guess that feels good.”
  • “It’s difficult to not feel a little bored. Ach! This question again! I intellectually know why you’re showing it to me again, but I’m like: haven’t I already answered this a dozen times?”
  • When the question is long, “I kinda skim”
  • “I’m reasonably busy, and this thing comes up pretty often”
• On memorizing before learning:
  • The Y and Z gates are “basically meaningless to me.”
• Would you value remembering all this stuff forever?
  • Yeah!
  • “Maybe not all the cards.”
  • “I feel like I’ve tried to learn all this a few times. It’s not quite stuck yet.”
• “Maybe one day I’ll be doing quantum computing research, and I’ll be like ‘thanks guys!’”
• Bugs:
  • there’s an issue with the questions where nothing happens when I click (that old bug)
  • using Safari on my Mac