Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderSo, I have a question. I found the 'article'... well comic, surprisingly easy to read and I think I learned something. However, my knowledge of quantum computing has mostly been based on articles that the comic was poking fun at. I've not had any formal education. So my question is, was this indeed a good educational comic, or does it just have a different set of problems from other articles on quantum computing?
This is a classic and always fun to reread, it helps to recalibrate my quantum computing sensor after reading nonsense articles and press releases everywhere else. I'm not sure how the work was divided in making the comic, but I always appreciate the cleverness that Scott Aaronson has in his writing (especially with analogies) and it really shines through here.
Real title: "The Talk".
This is a good read. One popular misconception it misses to hit on is that we do not know if quantum computing "gives your computer a huge speed boost!". The answer in the comic is only: "Well, we only know how to do that for a few special problems." I expected it to go on and say that even for them we are not sure because this seems to be a recurring topic in Scott Aaronson's writing.[1] Besides that my…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 1015
- Total comments
- 122
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-12-30 | “The Talk” by Scott Aaronson and Zach Weinersmith | nabla9 | 2 | 3 |
| 2017-07-06 | The Quantum Computing Talk | tambourine_man | 3 | 0 |
| 2017-12-29 | “The Talk” on Quantum Computing | danenania | 2 | 0 |
| 2018-04-04 | The Talk | andrewSC | 1 | 0 |
| 2018-08-09 | The Talk | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2019-01-08 | The Talk | Tomte | 2 | 0 |
| 2019-05-06 | The Talk (2016) | Tomte | 3 | 0 |
| 2019-10-25 | The (Quantum Computing) Talk | fanf2 | 5 | 0 |
| 2019-10-28 | The “Talk”First breakout · Best thread | ChuckMcM | 877 | 112 |
| 2021-03-22 | The Talk (2016) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2021-05-19 | If you don't talk to your kids about quantum computing, someone else will | ghgr | 7 | 1 |
| 2021-10-26 | The Talk (2016) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-06-24 | The Talk (2016) | Tomte | 1 | 0 |
| 2023-02-02 | The Talk (2016)Hall induction · Latest 20+ point return | Tomte | 106 | 6 |
| 2026-04-08 | "The Talk" by Scott Aaronson and Zach Weinersmith | cwillu | 3 | 0 |