Does anyone else think about quantum physics on a daily basis?

I'm no quantum physicist, or quantum mechanic, or quantum leaper, but I know one of my bits kinda flipped the day I read/heard something along the lines of (and please excuse the terrible paraphrasing, i'm just a lowly non-quantum programmer):

+ Scientists have found that sub-atomic particulars flicker in and out of existence/our "awareness" all the time (sometimes like a wave, sometimes like a particle, even the densest parts of atoms aren't "dense")

+ The phenomena of something "snapping into place" only after the scientist ("observer") observes it. Like things mainly exists as "probability clouds" and then those probabilities start narrowing as the observer narrows their focus.

Now I'm sure I'm butchering all of the scientific details (and I do apologize for that), but my question is two-fold:

a) Does anyone have a better, first-hand, understanding and/or experience with this that they can share (in layman's terms)?

b) And, if these principles are "true" — why aren't most people talking about this/freaking out?

Wouldn't this be something that's like....I dunno....kind of a big deal? Like "oh shit, the jedi knights were right"?

I'm sure there's some quantum genius on here who can just drop the mike on this one...