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Deep Engineering #58: Sebastian Hassinger on Where Quantum Progress is Real

Encoding ratios, code distance, and the unsolved physics underneath vendor roadmaps. Plus where quantum pays off first and how a classical developer gets in.
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Recent posts

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Materials Science Gets Real Value From Quantum Before Anything Else
Small molecule chemistry follows close behind. Optimization, cryptography, and machine learning all need thousands of logical qubits, so those sit much…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Eighty Years of Boolean Thinking Is the Real Barrier to Quantum Adoption
The hardware is not the hard part for enterprises. Recasting business problems in quantum terms means unlearning assumptions about problem solving that…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Quantum Computing Beyond the Hype with Sebastian Hassinger
How to tell genuine quantum progress from hype, why qubit count misleads, where the technology delivers value first, and how a classical developer…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Python Developers Can Learn Quantum Computing by Fixing Bugs
Most quantum programming happens in Python, and the fastest way in for a working developer is contributing to the packages themselves rather than…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Deep Engineering #57: Rory Preddy on Cutting Agent Costs Without Ranking Engineers
Agent profiles as shared infrastructure, spend caps inside the authorization boundary, and the metric that replaces tokens burned
 • Saqib Jan
I burned 51 million tokens on one merge conflict, and the model was not the problem
Cache the prefix, compact the context, route to the smallest model that fits, and put a ceiling on every loop
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Interviews Measure a Depreciating Skill
Notable engineering leaders on motivation, ambiguity, tribal knowledge and the measurement problem behind every reliability hire that did not work out
 • Saqib Jan
Deep Engineering #56: Peter Zaitsev on Choosing a Database Like You Can Never Leave It
Database choice is the decision teams rush most and regret longest, because a database is far easier to adopt than it is to leave.
 • Saqib Jan and Peter Zaitsev
Codex as a Teammate, Not Autocomplete
The developers who get the most from an AI coding agent don't prompt better. They scope better, test better, and review better.
Database Choice, Lock-In, and the AI Rush with Peter Zaitsev
On why nobody owning Postgres became its advantage, the labels that sell you proprietary software, and what self-hosting costs once AI speeds up…
 • Saqib Jan
So Your Demo Is Lying to You
The gap between an impressive AI demo and a trustworthy production system is structural and measurable. You close it with architecture, not hope.
 • Imran Ahmad
223 pull requests in 11 days for the project I never had time to build
Drive a fleet of agents by day, a few deep plans by night, and merge the wins over coffee.

Engineering Leadership

View all
Materials Science Gets Real Value From Quantum Before Anything Else
Small molecule chemistry follows close behind. Optimization, cryptography, and machine learning all need thousands of logical qubits, so those sit much…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Eighty Years of Boolean Thinking Is the Real Barrier to Quantum Adoption
The hardware is not the hard part for enterprises. Recasting business problems in quantum terms means unlearning assumptions about problem solving that…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Interviews Measure a Depreciating Skill
Notable engineering leaders on motivation, ambiguity, tribal knowledge and the measurement problem behind every reliability hire that did not work out
 • Saqib Jan
System Design Hiring Is Really a Judgment Test
Some repeat architecture while others jump straight to scaling, but the ones who stand out reason through failure, cost, and change.
 • Saqib Jan
How SUSE Runs AI Without Losing Control
Open source enterprises treat data sovereignty, MCP governance, and cost predictability as one connected problem
 • Saqib Jan
Compute Obsession Is Slowing Down AI Systems
Why data movement costs more than computation and what most engineers building AI systems are getting wrong because of it
 • Saqib Jan and Jim Ledin
Why Senior Engineers Fail System Design Interviews
Scoping, adaptability, and being exceedingly clear matter more than just knowing your tech stack in system design interviews.
 • Saqib Jan and Archit Agarwal
Rust Is Hard for the Engineers with the Most Experience
On the unlearning problem that trips up experienced engineers and the production payoff that makes it worth it
 • Saqib Jan and Francesco Ciulla

Interviews

View all
Quantum Computing Beyond the Hype with Sebastian Hassinger
How to tell genuine quantum progress from hype, why qubit count misleads, where the technology delivers value first, and how a classical developer…
 • Saqib Jan and Sebastian Hassinger
Database Choice, Lock-In, and the AI Rush with Peter Zaitsev
On why nobody owning Postgres became its advantage, the labels that sell you proprietary software, and what self-hosting costs once AI speeds up…
 • Saqib Jan
Tokens, Judgment, and AI Productivity with Austin Parker
On why a token is not a unit of intelligence, the illegible work token counts miss, pointing AI budgets at developer experience and observability, and…
 • Saqib Jan
Sovereign AI and Agentic Infrastructure with Rick Spencer
On running AI disconnected from the internet, the three-tier framework SUSE uses to match tools to work, why output metrics are vanity metrics, and MCP…
 • Saqib Jan
Try Rust With Your Own Hands and Eyes with Francesco Ciulla
On adoption strategy, flat latency, and the year he stopped hedging on Rust for production
 • Saqib Jan and Francesco Ciulla
Hands-On Software Engineering with Python with Brian Allbee
On systems thinking, designing for change, testing, and team velocity
 • Saqib Jan and Brian Allbee
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