Stuck on how or where to start but interested in quantum?

Quagmire is a space for learning, educating, discussing, playing, and gaming with quantum computing and quantum information.

I'll start off with my personal story. I'm Simon, the founder of Spinsphere, the company behind Quagmire. My learning journey in the quantum space has been slow-going for a number of years now. It is not my main profession, but it will be.

There is a huge range of people interested in "getting into quantum"—a phrase that means different things to different people. You may be a high school student, a seasoned professor in academia looking to transition into industry, or someone else entirely across a wide range of ages, backgrounds, skills, experiences, and aspirations. The common thread is that this field holds a powerful attraction for many people.

I've spent time learning, reading research papers, chatting with LLMs, and building tools like Informaq and Observer to help both myself and others digest the vast amount of information out there. I also network and follow industry news and community voices as closely as I can.

As for my own "getting into quantum" story, I fall into the category of a mid-40s software engineer—with recent years spent in technical management and entrepreneurial roles across several industries—looking to make a career pivot into quantum. Formally, my university education is in computer science, not physics, but I've had a thirst for learning quantum computing for years. All the while, I've strongly believed two things: (1) the quantum computing industry will start to deliver commercial value, and (2) even without a PhD, I'll be able to find a professional position in the industry. I started learning with Brilliant.org, moved on to Microsoft Quantum Katas, read many books, participated in the IBM Summer School program, joined a few hackathons, and worked through Quantum Country. As I mentioned, it has been slow-going—a long-term passion project kept on the side alongside my day job and family life.

Ultimately, I've reached a point where I want to slow down, refocus, and reset my approach so I truly feel like I am learning it. At the same time, the rapid growth of the industry, advancements in AI, life in general, and my innate love for digesting information and building software (like all programmers who fell in love with code as kids) create a bit of a conundrum—which is why I thought "Quagmire" was a fittingly funny name for this project.

Leveraging experience and knowledge from previously running an edtech startup, along with my current learning goals, I'm designing something I call Quagmire Academy. I plan to build it gradually as I progress through my own new learning journey. I'm not aiming to replace or outdo the amazing educational resources already available, but rather to address the fragmentation and friction learners face when getting started. By drawing on pedagogical research—such as Self-Determination Theory, self-efficacy, Cognitive Load Theory, multimedia learning principles, spatial contiguity, mastery learning, corrective feedback, adaptive instruction, self-paced learning, and AI assistance—I'm also exploring the long-term idea of building a Learning Management System (LMS) that could benefit others. Join me on Discord if you'd like to help discuss and build the Academy! My initial hypothesis and approach is to focus on content around math and related theories and concepts (quantum information in particular), experimenting with different learning pathways and visualization styles (3D/VR), leaving the actual coding and circuit running (simulator or real QPUs) to the aforementioned many wonderful platforms already out there.

The rest of the content on the Quagmire Space site consists of initial research and brainstorming notes I wanted to share with visitors. My primary sources for this material were the r/QuantumComputing subreddit, discussions from IBM Summer School chats on Discord, and a survey I conducted.

I'll keep the site updated as things progress.

Most people think of those golden chandeliers when conjuring up an image of a quantum computer. I found myself wanting to visualize these more, and before I jumped straight into building some myself, I found a couple of great resources already built.

The hardware, QPUs—the quantum equivalent of a CPU—is what gets a lot of the attention in media, investment, and research circles. Personally, it's the computation, software, and information side of things that interests us at Spinsphere.

That being said, there are different types of QPU hardware. Billions are being spent on research, and the race is still on to find out which modality, as they call it, will deliver the most value to whatever applications may be discovered in the future.

As I see people drawing parallels between the current state of the quantum computing industry and that of the 1950s–1960s, when transistor-based chips were being researched and developed, I think even for those on the software side, it's amazing to visualize and understand what's happening at the quantum scale in these machines. So, here are those two great sites:

Gaming isn't something most people associate with quantum computing. But there is actually a growing and thriving community, along with an expanding lineup of events and platforms in this space. Some aim to teach, like Quantum Odyssey, while others aim to apply quantum mechanical concepts directly to game mechanics.

I spent many years as a game developer, and naturally, the physics engine inside the platform I used (mainly Unity at the time) was something I relied on heavily. For a while, I've been wondering whether there'd be any practical use for a quantum physics engine, and it turns out there are already several attempts being made. That was actually one of the early ideas I had when I first came up with Quagmire years ago. And who knows—I may end up building and releasing my own version as I work on Quagmire Academy.