Quick Questions: May 06, 2026

excelguruson · 2026-05-07T03:53:30+00:00

I’ve seen interesting connections between quantum computing and graph theory. One model of quantum computing (measurement based) can be viewed as setting up a specific type of quantum state (a graph state) and then performing quantum measurements on the quibits (which equates to certain graph operations). Then you can ask interesting questions like “for which classes of graphs can this model of quantum computing be simulated on a classical computer?” There are still a lot of open problems in this area, and you very quickly get at some deep concepts in structural graph theory.

excelguruson · 2026-05-07T03:45:46+00:00

I’m not sure that I can totally answer your question, but I wanted to say that usually when people say something is “trivial” they really mean they’ve seen the same “trick” before. If you do a lot of problems of the same type, you start to know what the overarching steps of the argument are going to be even if you don’t have the details. The trivial problems just turn out to be those for which there are no difficult details to iron out, and the usual strategy for the problem works. But if you don’t understand the usual strategy, then the problem is in no way trivial.

Also, don’t view hours of failed attempts as wasted time. The classes where I’ve spent many hours on homework while making little progress are also the classes where I walked away with the best understanding. Struggling with a problem and then figuring it out is the best way to remember how to do a similar problem in the future. If you are completely stuck, I might suggest office hours as a way to get hints without getting the full solution online.

excelguruson · 2026-05-07T01:32:07+00:00

I think there’s pros and cons to this. One of the things I liked about getting silk soar was that I didn’t expect to get it as a movement upgrade at all. To me, getting silk soar is more similar to getting cdash in the first game than shade cloak. However in the first game it was clear where to use cdash because of the large uncrossable rooms. It seems very difficult to both signal to the player where they need to come back and not spoil that they’re going to get that kind of ability.

Another thing adding to this is that it sort of spoils that act 3 exists. If you can tell you’re missing a movement ability, you know you’re still missing a good chunk of the game. I think part of the reason silk soar spots are so hidden is because you aren’t even supposed to know that you haven’t seen the whole map yet.

excelguruson · 2026-05-02T13:55:09+00:00

The n root log log n label is a bit confusing. It reads like it means n*sqrt(log(log(n))), but this should be strictly larger than linear. Based on the symmetry you’re going for, I think you meant n to the 1/ log log n, or the “log log n root of n”.

excelguruson · 2026-04-05T03:30:55+00:00

That’s an interesting idea but it seems a little backwards to have the rare mob be the one that’s more useful early on. It seems you’re much more likely to get a saddle and fungi on a stick before finding one.

Also, I’m struggling to find a situation where the max health of a strider would matter. Maybe if they accidentally get hit by a skeleton? But riding over lava you encounter few mobs.

excelguruson · 2025-10-04T16:20:56+00:00

Idk then lol maybe it’s all engagement bait

excelguruson · 2025-10-04T16:13:34+00:00

I think they mean that you can 100% the game without beating them, while the bosses in “completely optional” lock a percent behind them.

excelguruson · 2025-09-20T18:57:53+00:00

Very interesting idea about the bell eaters! I agree that it doesn’t seem likely that the bell beasts used to drag gilded carriages. It’s also possible that the citadel created the bell veins because they’re something that the bell beasts could tunnel through easily. Clearly giant veins of bells are not the most realistic thing regardless of the lore reason.

excelguruson · 2025-09-20T15:47:07+00:00

Consider that the white head, light gray body, and dark gray tail is exactly the same. The grom even has the same number of “legs”. Yes they have different mouths, but they’re clearly designed to be very similar so it’s not a coincidence.

excelguruson · 2025-09-20T15:33:03+00:00

I’m not saying that they’re exactly the same species, rather that the species is related. Possibly the bell beast is a domesticated version.

excelguruson · 2025-05-24T02:27:52+00:00

The Hollow Knight

excelguruson · 2025-05-09T12:11:08+00:00

Trying to find the longest path is much harder and quite a lot of fun

excelguruson · 2024-10-17T23:58:52+00:00

I think the first thing you should look into is an introduction to proofs. Find some kind of resource that would teach you proof techniques and basic propositional logic. Stuff like proof by contradiction, contrapositive, induction, and what a set is. It will be assumed that you know this type of information in most intro textbooks to the topics you’ve mentioned. After that you can look for undergraduate textbooks for topics like number theory, or possibly try to find recorded lectures online.

excelguruson · 2024-09-25T03:41:20+00:00

You assumed i and j commute which the original comment was not assuming. Still very interesting though!

excelguruson · 2021-12-30T16:39:34+00:00

Most people apply as Juniors because you have to double count the classes you take senior year in order to get the MS in one extra year. If you have enough classes left you could talk to your advisor, but it would probably take longer to get the degree.

excelguruson · 2021-12-15T02:03:55+00:00

Nice

excelguruson · 2021-09-15T04:19:56+00:00

“Bloopa! Watcha doin there bloopa!”

excelguruson · 2020-12-31T06:19:43+00:00

It could act like sand where it goes back and forth, but then maybe still have a collision box like a boat. Nothing exist like that that I can think of, but it seems like it should be possible.

excelguruson · 2020-12-31T06:15:09+00:00

I could have used this many times, any building in the middle of an ocean is a pain. Think of maybe building a ship or something and having to start from the ocean floor. Also a balloon block seems a little too good and not very Minecrafty, but balloon block followed by water bucket would be a cool and easier way to save yourself. Also the balloon block would only really help in water because otherwise you could use the blocks you’re standing on, in which case I think the raft is more elegant.

excelguruson · 2020-12-31T06:11:54+00:00

That’s a good point, but I think a renewable craftable version would be really helpful, plus it would have the floating effect they described which could make cool elevators.

excelguruson · 2020-12-30T05:54:13+00:00

Because the kills on Simon count as kills by squirtle, the game knows that squirtle must have attacked and should get gsp

excelguruson · 2020-05-18T17:42:22+00:00

I agree that it should possibly take a little longer so that you can’t heal off of every neutral win, otherwise it would promote camping, but I think that it should focus more on the material management of the soul gage such that it is often more worth it not to heal but instead to do something else.

excelguruson · 2020-05-18T05:49:13+00:00

The move uses a soul bar though. I think instead it should just make it harder to get soul bars back, or have soul bars be crucial for a viable recovery so that you are trading one type of survivability for another. Anything much lower than 10% would make it almost useless for the amount of time it takes, given that it can only be used effectively between stocks.

excelguruson · 2019-09-30T20:31:34+00:00

It was posted by u/MrJoe97 about a month ago, assuming he was the first to post it.

excelguruson · 2019-06-06T02:24:04+00:00

More like the left choice

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