Quantum computers are fascinating to me on the one hand and difficult to grasp on the other.

It's an oversimplification - at best - but I think of a metaphor with positional notation.

For example, if I have a symbol, such as 10111100011101, it simultaneously has infinite potential values until I give it a base of representation. But, the moment I say that it's a base 10 number or a base 2 number or a base 8 number, it "collapses" to a single value.

So, I imagine quantum computations as something like classical computations that could operate on that symbol without fixing the base of representation. For example, splitting it or reversing it and so on. Every operation like that can produce an infinite number of answers after the base gets established.

Obviously, it's not at all what the quantum computer is doing, and I have no idea whether there are any useful operations to be done in my imaginary scenario, but at least it's a familiar concept that makes me feel better about the idea of "superposition" and computing with superimposed values.