An Interactive Guide to Quantum Computing? & more procrastination (Patreon)

I'm a bit ashamed about this, but I think it's important I be open and transparent with you: I feel stuck.

Specifically, stuck on the Adventures with Anxiety story-game. In February, I made a lot of progress on it! But in March, I gave two talks, so I did zero work on AwA. (Which is fine – I'm glad I did the talks, hopefully they were helpful!) But even after 2½ weeks back, I still haven't regained my momentum on AwA, and I'm worried it's going to take a long, long time.

Yes, the anxiety game is causing anxiety. Whodathunk.

For better-worse, whenever I get stuck on one project, I get antsy and start planning more projects. So, um... here's some concept sketches for a 10-part explorable explanation on Quantum Computing:

(Don't worry if these pictures don't make sense right now, that's what the full explorable will be for!)

(I'm super excited about this way of visualizing matrices as graphs, because it 1) isn't well-known yet, and 2) makes it easy to prove things about quantum circuits!)

Also there's a mascot. It's Schrödinger's Ket:

If you want to see more, here's my rough outline and here's a visual proof of the Quantum Teleportation circuit. Again, they're probably not helpful right now, but that's what the full explorable will be for.

(Huge thanks to Andy Matuschak & Michael Nielsen: I fell into the quantum computing rabbit-hole thanks to their wonderful explainer, Quantum Computing for the Very Curious! Another cool thing about their essay: it has Spaced Repetition embedded inside of it. Thus, you can easily commit it all to long-term memory. If you have a spare 3 hours + know complex numbers & some linear algebra, I highly recommend you check it out!)

・・・・・・・・・・

If you've followed me for a while, 1) thank you 💖 and 2) you know I get stuck a lot.

When I got stuck on The Evolution of Trust, I did two things: 1) I took a week off to make Fireflies, and 2) I rebooted the project so that instead of an "interactive voiceover" format (like Neurotic Neurons), it was a new "interactive slideshow" format I'd never done before.

When I got stuck on The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds, the most helpful thing I did was to playtest it with friends. Partly for feedback, but mostly an excuse to hang out with pals. (Since I work independently, it's too easy for me to go whole _days_ without talking to anyone)

When I got stuck on the Learning How To Learn project, two things helped: 1) narrowing down the scope to just Spaced Repetition, and 2) trying an "interactive comic" format I'd never done before either.

In sum, what seems to work for me:

• Rebooting the main project
• Having a side project
• Playtesting (especially with friends)

I don't think I'll reboot Adventures with Anxiety – I'm actually pretty happy with its current design – but maybe I'll try having a side project, and definitely will playtest AwA with friends.

Two questions for you:

1) What strategies do you have for getting "un-stuck"?

2) Would you like me to share more sketches / prototypes / idea-dumps with you, even if they never become full projects?

Let me know! And, thank you again so much for your patience and support. Chat with you again soon!

<3,
~ Nicky