This page contains a (certainly not up-to-date) archive of my LinkedIn posts.
Struggling is good
2024-06-23
Twelve years ago, as I was struggling with a math exercise, my high school teacher told me, “Struggling is good. If you’re struggling, then you are learning.”
These words have pushed me forward ever since. They remind me every day that failing is perfectly fine as long as you get something positive from it. 🌿
They also remind me to stay humble, which I think is essential when working in the quantum computing industry. Things move fast, and it’s impossible to know or keep up with everything—especially when you come from software engineering!
What pieces of wisdom from your teachers have stuck with you over the years? Tell me about them in the comments!
Read books
2024-06-18
Reading technical books has made me a better software engineer 📚
However, I feel like most of us rarely read such books, whether in digital or physical form.
I understand why: our workflow is based on searching for specific issues on Google or, more recently, asking ChatGPT for precise answers. Our work culture is strongly oriented toward micro-learning. And what better pool of small nuggets of knowledge is there than the internet?
Still, I think books offer two things that are hard to find elsewhere:
1️⃣ An excellent knowledge-to-time-spent ratio. Good books get straight to the point. Also, once you have the book, it’s there; you just have to keep reading. On the Internet, knowledge tends to be more fragmented, so you need to spend more time researching and selecting the relevant resources.
2️⃣ Context and perspective. A good book will transform your ‘unknown unknowns’ into ‘known unknowns’. For me, this is an invaluable benefit: it’s like having a personal coach who tells you exactly what to study next and how.
Do you think books are underrated in our field today? What’s your favorite software engineering book? Share your thoughts in the comments! 👀
My best habit as a software engineer
2024-06-17
The best habit I adopted after my first year in the software industry: systematically asking “Why?” until I deeply understood the answer.
I love this technique, because it works at multiple levels:
- Why is this feature important to my users?
- Why is this project important to my team?
- Why is this milestone important to my organization?
If you’ve ever had doubts about the project you were working on, or felt insecure about your work, this kind of questions might help. (I’ve been there—quantum computing can be hard to approach 😬)
My humble advice in this situation: address these issues ASAP, before it starts hurting your career, your mental health, or both.
Be safe out there. 😊
Boring stack
2024-06-13
Alice & Bob’s software stack is boring. 😴 And I think that’s a very good thing! ⬇️
From the beginning, we have chosen one the most standard stacks that exist, with (very) popular languages and technologies. You can’t be more standard than that.
But does it make the job itself boring? 🤨 I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong: I like learning a new language as much as the next programmer. But my real value as a software engineer is not in mastering the newest, most fashionable framework before everyone else.
It’s in finding the right abstractions for the business problems I must solve. Designing intuitive APIs that my physicist colleagues will enjoy using, even if they don’t like coding. And building robust software architecture that will stand the test of time, and smoothly adapt to ever-changing requirements. 🍃
Those are the problems I like to solve and, in my opinion, the most interesting part of my job. In a way, a standard stack is reassuring, because it lets us focus on what’s most important: good engineering practices. Languages and technologies are tools we can change when needed, but software engineering principles are forever.
Thoughts on our boring stack? I’ll be happy to read them!
Why is there a software team in a quantum computing company?
2024-06-12
Why does a quantum computing company even need a software team? 🤔
That’s a question I often get! As you can guess, many of my colleagues are physicists, each with their own area of expertise. And what’s the common thread among these talented professionals, aside from a burning passion for hiking gear? Code.
- ⚡ Experimental physicists write programs to describe electromagnetic pulses with nanosecond precision.
- 🧠 Theorists use code to run quantum simulations, and compare them with experimental data.
- ⚙️ Microwave engineers have streamlined their chip design processes with internally developed libraries.
- ☁️ Did I mention Boson 4, the cat qubit chip we recently put in the cloud?
I think you get the idea: code is literally everywhere. ✨
Enter the software team! Alongside our beloved product managers, we design and create robust, scalable software for everyone else to use! The result? Other teams can focus on their strengths, and be more productive. “L’union fait la force !” (Unity makes strength), as we say in French. 🇫🇷
In a future post, I’ll dive deeper into our software stack, and the reasoning behind it. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out. 😊
Being a software engineer in a quantum computing company
2024-06-11
What is it like to work as a software engineer in a quantum computing company? ⬇️
At first glance, it might seem pretty standard! We use the same engineering practices as everyone else: code reviews, CI/CD, unit tests, weekly demos… and yes, fixing production services on Friday evenings. 😅
So, what’s so special about it? First, our users are our physicists colleagues, just a few desks away. They are incredibly smart, and even more demanding! Clearly, you have to get used to working with them (a topic for another post), but beyond this point, it has made my work much more rewarding! 💪
After almost three years, my best work memories come from epic pair programming sessions with physicist colleagues, tweaking our in-house framework to run cutting-edge experiments on our quantum chip. Those moments when you realize you’re working at the forefront of science are pure gold. 🎖️
Finally, being surrounded by people eager to share their knowledge is a true pleasure. Every day, I learn something new beyond software engineering—quantum physics, control electronics, microwave engineering, and so much more. It’s a privilege for the physics lover inside me! 🧠
I’ll be happy to share more about all of this in the coming days. In the meantime, to all my fellow engineers working in deep tech: what has been your experience so far?