Saman Mathew Badakhshan

I'm Saman — a principal engineer and full-stack generalist based in London. I've been building software for over a decade now, working across platforms, distributed systems, and more recently, agentic AI. I write code when I can, and help teams build on solid architectural foundations when that's what's needed. Lately I've thrown myself into agentic engineering — it genuinely feels like a shift that's changing the craft.

I studied Music Informatics at Sussex, which at the time felt like a weird half-CS, half-music degree. Turns out it was the perfect training ground: signal processing, digital synthesis, AI, music theory, and a healthy obsession with how complex systems produce emergent behaviour. It taught me to think about systems the way a composer thinks about structure — which sounds pretentious, but it's stuck.

After graduating I moved to London and built a career the long way: writing code, leading teams, gradually taking on more scope. I enjoy both the hands-on work and the people side — helping engineering teams get better at the things that matter: architecture, communication, shipping without burning out. I've ended up in a role that mixes both, which suits me fine.

On AI, I'm a pragmatist. Use the tools. Ship better work because of them. Stay honest about where they break. I'm not here for the hype cycle or the doom cycle — the reality is more interesting than either. Agentic systems especially have me genuinely excited and genuinely humbled in roughly equal measure.

This blog is where I work through ideas at the intersection of engineering, technology, and culture. You'll find deep dives on distributed systems and AI, honest takes on engineering patterns and tools, and probably the odd piece about music, games, or whatever else I've been thinking about. If good engineering is about taste as much as technical skill, this is where I'm sharpening both.