Sameer

Builder & Orchestrator.
Reflecting on life & technology.
Learning to keep it simple...

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Over the last two days, I interacted with two chatbots.

One ignored my request and kept looping!
The other was negotiating with me… and got so confused that it eventually offered me more than its previous offer 🙃

AI is getting remarkably capable. Building a chatbot is easy. Building one that understands intent, maintains context, and behaves consistently is incredibly hard.

Reliable AI is still a big problem to solve.
The demo is rarely the product.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

@volklub Thank you so much 🙏
Will check these out.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

@volklub, need some car-buying advice.

Looking for a safe and comfortable family car with an ~80:20 city-highway split. It will be driven roughly 70:30 by a driver and me. Budget: ~₹20L. Monthly running ~1200kms.

Options I’ve looked at so far: Windsor EV Essence, E-Vitara Zeta, Creta EV Smart (O)
Priorities: Safety, Rear-seat comfort, Reliability, Ease of driving & good for occasional longer trips.

Would you recommend any of the above, or should I be looking at something else? Would appreciate your valuable insights (as always).

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Last year, while sitting in the mountains of northern India, I read The 5 Types of Wealth by @SahilBloom.

One idea stayed with me: not all important things in life fit neatly into a financial spreadsheet.
And as we navigated the difficult decision to move back to India, the book offered a useful perspective. It encouraged us to think more broadly about what a “wealthy life” truly means.

Career opportunities matter. Financial security matters.
But so do time, relationships, health, and being present for the people who matter most.
The decision wasn’t easy. But the framework helped us understand what we valued most.

Thank you for the perspective, Sahil.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

https://t.co/6o9HufJDmo

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

https://t.co/6o9HufJDmo

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Life has its own way of reminding you to keep a Plan B. Sometimes even a Plan C.

We’re leaving our apartment in Berlin and found a family willing to take it over with all the furniture, which is easier for everyone involved.

They showed strong interest. Shared all documents.
The rental company prepared the offer.
I even double-checked with them because backing out later would put us in a difficult spot, though they didn't confirm!
And then, just before signing: a short WhatsApp apology and an email declining the offer... no calls, nothing!

Back to square one and with no time left, we have to sell the furniture in haste!

The mistake we made was that we trusted them and didn't take an advance (which is usually the process here).

The lesson I’m taking from this: No matter who the person is or how genuine things feel, don’t skip the checks and balances just because of verbal commitment. People can always back off, sometimes for completely valid reasons.
But the impact is usually carried by the other side.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Discussion about waste segregation with a German colleague :)

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Update: the internet isn't fixed yet and is still intermittent, though a lot of us who are impacted got 500 GB always-on data through an eSIM for 15 days. working pretty well!

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Living abroad teaches something interesting:
Every place has things that work brilliantly.
And things that make absolutely no sense.
And people everywhere complain about what doesn’t work locally and idealize what exists elsewhere.

For example, we complain a lot about things not working in India.
Meanwhile, I’ve been sitting in Berlin, Germany, a highly developed country, with an intermittent Vodafone cable internet connection for more than a week now. And yes, no fiber in my area yet!
At times, the internet disappears for hours, and we switch to a mobile hotspot or make unplanned office trips.

Honestly, I don’t remember internet outages lasting this long back in Noida.
@airtelindia and @reliancejio have been incredibly fast at resolving them unless it was a major failure.

Same story with our apartment elevator. Out of service for weeks now because spare parts take time to arrive.
This again was unimaginable in Noida. At least there was a backup elevator. Here, only one elevator for 100+ houses across 5 floors, so no backup!

None of this means one place is better than the other.
Every country optimizes for different things. Every system has trade-offs.

Berlin gives safety, good public transport and good air.
India gives incredible service responsiveness, efficiency and speed in many day-to-day things.

The grass always looks greener elsewhere.
Perspective changes when you experience both sides.

Perhaps, the only way to find peace is to stay patient and be grateful for what already works around us…

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Met my former Director over a hearty Indian lunch yesterday. We spoke about life, kids, people… and of course, technology.

We both had the same observation: Coding itself is increasingly becoming solved. You mostly need to know what to build and how to guide it.
Though software engineering was never just typing syntax. And agentic coding still lacks deep awareness of distributed systems, dependencies, edge cases, and real-world complexity.

Which means that testing, verification, and engineering judgment become even more important now.
The tools are changing fast. The responsibility & accountability aren’t.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

Well, partly agree. The struggle for stability, family responsibilities, and a better future is real. And passion alone often sounds better in hindsight than in the middle of uncertainty.

But I’m not fully convinced about the ₹4 lakh watch example. If someone truly understands the value of money, spending that much on a watch itself raises questions. And if they’re wealthy enough for it to be normal, the emotional reaction feels different (the watch was lost by mistake!).

Maybe the movie wasn’t trying to make Suhas “bad.” Just someone consumed by status, fear, and societal definitions of success.

And as we grow older, we realize life isn’t Rancho vs Suhas. Most of us are trying to balance both. And real life is usually somewhere in between, that is, trying to protect your future without completely losing yourself in the process.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

I’ve realized that there’s no universally “better” life.
Each comes with its own gains and trade-offs.
At one stage of life, you may crave silence, structure, and space. At another, you may need energy, chaos, people, and a sense of belonging.

A lot also depends on your life situation: age, kids, career phase, health, support system, parents, relations, even what you’re emotionally and spiritually seeking at that moment.

And different environments feed different parts of us.
So, be where you find joy and feel the most alive - considering your phase of life and life situation.
And be happy!

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

With ~4.5 years in #Berlin, I still don’t understand how parents manage early medical intervention for children.

Our kid has severe ear pain and drainage, likely a middle ear infection and a ruptured eardrum.
Three nearby HNO (ENT) clinics.

Yesterday: One clinic refused because of too many patients, but asked us to come early the next morning “as the first patient.”
Second: Doctor on vacation. Third: likely closed.

Today morning: We were told to wait 1.5–2 hours anyway. We came back again in the afternoon (so that the kid can go to school after another dose of painkillers). Waited another 2 hours to get our turn.

People often say: “Go to the ER.” But unless it’s life-threatening, you either get turned away or wait 5–6 hours there too (as there are a lot of cases).
And our regular HNO appointment? That's weeks away, so no point.

The most difficult part was watching our child suffer while navigating this and explaining to him why it’s taking so long and multiple attempts to see the doctor!
On the other hand, you learn a lot of patience and kids from an early phase learn how the system works!

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

A fresh engineer asked me for advice.
I told her: be curious, don’t stay at the surface. Go deep, understand the details.

She looked unsure, so I gave an example.
“You are using a framework, and it has a bug. What would you do?”

She said:
“Verify it’s really a framework bug and report it.”

Good first step. Then I asked:
“What’s stopping you from debugging it yourself? Finding the root cause? Exploring a fix? Perhaps even raising a PR?”

That process will teach more than any course ever will.

Follow the trail. Understand why it broke. Explore the internals.
Depth creates confidence. Curiosity creates growth.
And the engineers who go far are usually the ones who are curious enough to dig a little deeper.

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

I like to do things via proper channels only, no exceptions. And this, at times, puts me in a bad situation with known folks.
However, I stick to the right decision, as it lets me sleep well later!

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

A small request I keep getting asked about:
“Can I give you INR in India and you give me EUR in Germany?”
Or
“Can I give you EUR in Germany and you give me INR in India?”

[Sameer @sameer_bhatt]

There are already good, legal ways to transfer money.
They may feel slightly slower or cost a bit more.
But they give you a proper trail, documentation and overall peace of mind.