Pavel A. Samsonov

Design is the rendering of care.

💼Problem design, user experience, product, decision-making, software development 🎓CMU MHCI, YSDN 🔵Sick of rectangles.

designing at the intersection of 0 and f(x)=1/x

#ux #design #uxdesign #servicedesign #hci #tfr

Where?: 🇨🇦 Toronto →🇺🇸 Bklyn
Who?: He/him
What?: https://www.pavelsamsonov.com
Why?: 🤷

Public Key

npub1yydgg4z4wqe3tycsy95ppvx26wt389hjp5s0q6xzav5594q4weyspqd3ge

NIP-05 Address

pavelasamsonov_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqszzx5y232hqvc4jvgzz6qskr9d89cnjmeq6g8sdrpwk22z6s2hvjgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsajsqn2

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1yydgg4z4wqe3tycsy95ppvx26wt389hjp5s0q6xzav5594q4weyspqd3ge

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-06 12:55:16 UTC

LLMs have no concept of "true" or "good." But they are trained to signal high-quality work. Meanwhile, bosses are pressuring workers: go faster, produce more, let the AI cook.
Study after study documents what this does to the human brain: cognitive surrender. We're "in the loop" but the bot calls the shots.
Read more in this week's issue of the Product Picnic newsletter:
#LLM #AI #UXDesign #tech #softwaredevelopment #software
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ai-mandates-are-a-demand-for-cognitive-surrender

2026-04-01 19:33:06 UTC

"AI is writing 90% of our code" sounds impressive before you realize that AI-generated code is orders of magnitude more verbose & less efficient than code written by a professional software engineer.
But "we ship 9 lines of fluff for each line of code that does something" doesn't sound as impressive.
#LLM #AI #ClaudeCode #vibecoding

2026-03-31 13:17:08 UTC

The main problem with checking AI outputs is that you need to have an idea of what you actually wanted it to do, and most people use AI as a substitute for having to figure that out.

2026-03-30 12:09:55 UTC

Grammarly quietly made an #AI to sell bad writing advice using famous writers' names. They quickly had to backtrack as soon as people found out.
This gamble reflects a broader trend in the #tech industry: everyone is shipping features as quickly as an #LLM can write lines of code, with no way to spot problems until something breaks or someone sues them.
Vibe prototyping replaced thinking through things. But without direction, moving faster is worthless.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/grammarly-shows-how-prototyping-turned-into-an-excuse-for-not-thinking
#ux #uxdesign

2026-03-29 13:51:28 UTC

2031
History student: so was any of the Biden Saga canon? Or was it all just filler?
Teacher: As a large language model, I am not permitted to answer that question.

2026-03-28 17:36:07 UTC

Make sure to rotate your pronouns periodically, so that if your gender becomes compromised, attackers can only access it for a short period of time.

2026-03-23 13:29:10 UTC

The product delivery lifecycle is composed of service relationships. AI's main value proposition is freedom from relationships.
When designers champion AI tools, we are not making ourselves layoff-proof. We are reinforcing a system that frames us as unnecessary friction.
If we don't want to serve as janitors for vibe prototypes, We must invest in deliberately designing the service relationships that make up the PDLC.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ux-works-through-social-relationships-ai-tools-are-erasing-them
#UXDesign #LLM #AI #Tech #softwaredevelopment

2026-03-16 13:33:47 UTC

There's a new "design is dead, because AI" piece (thinly disguised marketing from Anthropic). But looking past the hype headlines, their claims cover purely production-stage tasks.
When it comes to the work of understanding user needs and evaluating the opportunity space, AI actually makes your thinking worse. Studies show that it alienates you from users and colleagues, and flattens your thinking.
We need more human-centered practice, not less.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/software-is-a-coordination-problem-ai-can-t-help-you-with-that
#LLM #UX #AI #tech

2026-03-10 16:56:25 UTC

Today is MAR 10, aka Mario day. It is also extremely close to the spring equinox.
This implies a cycle of Wario Day (fall equinox), Luigi Day (summer solstice), and Waluigi Day (winter solstice).
Luigi's height and generosity represents the wheat stalk; when we feast upon the harvest we embody Wario's girth and greed.
Waluigi stands for the lean times that come during winter. As the snows melt he is replaced by Mario, whose plumber nature blesses the fixing of pipes that burst from the cold.

2026-03-09 13:21:57 UTC

People tell me that #AI code is fine, because you can run automatic tests. But tests can only tell you if code is doing the thing you want it to do.
To know what it SHOULD do, we used to have requirements. But now requirements are themselves vibe-coded slopotypes.
People were hoping that this would get them higher velocity, but testing the requirements in production only produces waste and risk.
To test requirements safely, you need a culture of critique.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/checking-an-llm-s-work-is-a-systemic-not-an-individual-problem
#LLM #UX

2026-03-02 11:44:48 UTC

The claim "you won't be replaced by AI, but by a person using AI" is nonsense. The Block layoff victims were some of the most productive, #llm pilled people in the company, but it didn't save them, because that's not what layoffs are about.
The layoff script goes, as always:
- overhire
- lay everyone off
- pretend it's because of #AI productivity gains
- stock go up
There is no individual solution that will protect you from bad leadership and cost cutting.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ai-layoffs-like-block-s-are-a-race-to-the-bottom-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-productivity
#tech

2026-02-24 14:07:20 UTC

Before you ask a diffusion model to barf up a banner image for your article, please consider searching one of the many existing sources of fine & free media:
• Public Domain Image Archive
• Openverse
• Wellcome Collection
• Digital Bodleian
• Getty Open Content Program
• Wikimedia Commons
#publicdomain #substack

2026-02-24 13:03:17 UTC

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.
FOSS nerds: the Torment Nexus cannot be ethical until it is Open Source

2026-02-17 14:25:15 UTC

“AI can make mistakes” might as well be the slogan of our era. Even boosters admit that you need to spin the vibe code slot machine a few times to get a jackpot.
An employee with that degree of consistency would be fired.
So how do we redirect some of that unlimited grace from machines to humans?
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/corporations-demand-perfection-from-workers-but-ai-gets-unlimited-slack
#UX #UXDesign #LLM #AI #tech #softwaredevelopment

2026-01-31 00:11:46 UTC

- reply

Porto!! One of my favorite trips. So many pins I didn't make it to 😭

2026-01-27 19:51:20 UTC

All the same people boosting LLMs today were boosting NFTs five years ago. It's not a coincidence that
AI POWERED
is an anagram of
APE WEIRDO

2026-01-20 12:50:52 UTC

Executives don’t want to just sell juice. They want to empower you with an agentic, customizable, and seamless juice experience.
But no one has stopped to think about what any of that actually means. Before designing a "solution," you need a good, *shared* problem definition. If the beautiful clarity within the design team shatters on contact with any handoff, you didn't finish the job.
Read more in this week's Product Picnic:
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/your-problem-framing-is-sabotaging-your-strategy
#UX #design #softwaredevelopment #tech

2026-01-13 02:23:52 UTC

#agile #scrum #tech #softwaredevelopment #meme #funny
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/885/407/248/203/533/original/6564e9a2c322287b.jpg

2026-01-12 15:06:50 UTC

If you're in #tech and struggling to figure out what your career look like now — this piece is my answer. You've heard "it's here to stay" or "it's better than nothing."
Reject these frames.
Look at the system being built around you. Manufacturing validation for "inevitable" success. Rewriting our roles from human-centered creative to feature cheerleader.
Our choices write the future. And you have more choices than "embrace the inevitable" or "quit."
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/the-incredible-value-of-nothing
#ai #llm #ux

2026-01-05 15:03:45 UTC

VCs fund companies who get on the latest hype train. Solving a real user problem is a secondary concern; "product market fit" is seen as something you do only after you build, a sales problem.
But when the product doesn't solve any real problems, showing "progress" to your board is impossible!
So managers invent metrics. Many people are going to come back to the office this week and set goals based on what activity is easiest to measure, rather than what is important.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/your-metrics-are-an-avoidance-strategy

2025-12-31 17:59:07 UTC

- reply

Hello!

2025-12-26 20:18:55 UTC

2025 has only intensified the struggles of past years. The challenge for us is not "how do we pull through?" but "how do we make a 'new normal' work for us?"
The answer, of course, is not to simply try harder. To prevent 2026 from going like 2025, we need to deliberately re-evaluate our own goals, and our relationships with our jobs.
Learn more in the final issue of the Product Picnic for the year — and if you like it, please subscribe! #tech #softwaredevelopment #ux
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/burnout

2025-12-16 13:34:25 UTC

- reply

lmfao at the confidence of "We use AI coding agents. We’d be crazy not to" in an article about, well, this

2025-11-18 14:38:45 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/115570988875664622
It's so great that we just changed regulations to allow investment funds to hitch their wagon to this mangy horse
#note1vxq…zdru

2025-11-01 14:59:40 UTC

Robert's Rules of Order:
A Robert may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A Robert must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A Robert must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

2025-10-31 14:12:09 UTC

Annual reminder that a black cat crossing your path is good luck actually, because it signifies that you got to see a cat
#cats #cat

2025-10-06 13:51:46 UTC

Big tech is laying off user researchers in droves, because it believes that coercing its customers is more profitable than silly things like "making good products people want to buy."
But now the FAFO pendulum is coming around, with Amazon's $2.5B dark pattern settlement and #a11y lawsuits galore.
#UX #UserResearch #tech #software
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ux-so-bad-that-it-s-illegal

2025-10-01 15:31:34 UTC

The product triad is obsolete. The ideal software development team actually has four members:
#tech #agile #softwaredevelopment #programming
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/299/624/460/263/130/original/0cb544960e291524.jpg

2025-09-06 03:12:35 UTC

- reply

No that's the actual way it's measured.

2025-09-06 01:44:31 UTC

- reply

It's characters in a PR, meaning that if 99% of PRs are AI and they are all manually reviewed and rejected by increasingly depressed engineers, your company is still writing 99% of its code with AI

2025-09-02 12:01:07 UTC

The co-founder of landlord app Airbnb is now Chief Design Officer of the USA. And the UX commentariat cheers, because the vibes of a "seat at the table" play better than the reality: the same government that appointed Joe Gebbia has just demolished 18F, an actual design studio that did actual UX work for the USA, rather than meaningless posturing.
This is not the first time UX has made this bargain: have a seat at the table, only if you can pledge to do nothing with it.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/the-aesthetics-of-success-come-at-the-cost-of-failure

2025-08-19 12:12:43 UTC

is AI real life
is it just fantasy
caught up in the hype
no escape from reality
#ai #llm #vibecoding
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/055/365/668/302/520/original/c33f10e9ed2b8b65.jpeg

2025-08-01 17:10:10 UTC

Users hate #AI. So tech made it mandatory. Even if you don't personally use it, it pollutes what you read and how systems make decisions. The computer's hallucinated word is final.
And it steals your data to do it.
Your tools are constructing you as a subject of surveillance — the #UX is making it seem normal to expose every facet of your life to companies with complete disregard for your privacy.
This is NOT normal. It's deeply weird. But it's becoming unavoidable.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/the-ai-age-is-the-age-of-no-consent-7559

2025-07-19 17:59:25 UTC

#AI is a marketing term; before we discuss "AI is fake" vs "AI is real" we need to unfold what we *mean* by AI.
For example, "artificial general intelligence" is fake and can't hurt you. Layoffs excused by "AI efficiency" are real and can hurt you.
Linkedin discourse is fake - but it CAN hurt you.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/881/195/622/175/767/original/bb33d3c62af3cf84.png

2025-06-28 18:54:21 UTC

Techies are always chasing the mythical tool that will let them "focus on the work" and avoid tedious distractions like "talking to people." AI tools are only the latest to promise this impossible dream.
But talking to people IS the work. You can complain about it on the internet, or take responsibility and make your life a lot easier.
#LLM #AI #UXDesign #UX #Design #Tech #userresearch #productmanagement #product
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/can-designers-avoid-meetings-d6d3

2025-06-20 22:29:30 UTC

Tech companies think that, if they make products *look* futuristic, you will think that they are actually innovating. In reality what we get is not "Star Trek communicators inspired cell phones" but "every experience with your computer is going to be like begging HAL to open the pod bay doors" except less evil and more frustrating.
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/imitating-the-future-breaking-the-present
#UXDesign #Tech #technology #AI #LLM #UIdesign #UI #UX

2025-06-17 09:43:34 UTC

Sure - return to office policies may make us less healthy and less happy, but at least they also make us less productive.
https://farmingdale-observer.com/2025/05/16/scientists-have-been-studying-remote-work-for-four-years-and-have-reached-a-very-clear-conclusion-working-from-home-makes-us-happier/

2025-06-14 17:00:59 UTC

In 300BC, Zeno proved that it's impossible to code an app using #LLM tools.
Imagine a vibe coder who generates an app. The LLM can only provide working code for half of the features requested.
So he has to ask the #AI to generate the other half. Once again, the AI can only fulfill half of the request.
The vibe coder again asks for the AI to generate code, and the AI again is only capable of delivering half of the request. And so on.
As a result, the vibe coder can never complete the app.

2025-06-06 02:55:09 UTC

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - William Faulkner
+
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." - William Gibson
=
"Everything happens so much."(horse_ebooks)

2025-05-30 20:15:09 UTC

2021: There is no #AI, I'm doing my own laundry.
2023: CEOs are saying that AI is coming and will do your laundry.
2025: There is AI. I'm still doing my own laundry.
2027?: I'm doing the AI's laundry.

2025-05-29 21:13:07 UTC

Any second now... #LLM #AGI #GenAI #AI
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/593/179/626/157/388/original/fdee5b6d766f5653.jpg

2025-05-22 16:40:49 UTC

People make fun of English majors but after only a few years you can be promoted to an English colonel.

2025-05-15 02:32:02 UTC

- reply

Ugh, same thing happened to me. Sick for a week (not covid), fine for a couple of weeks, then bam - the roni.

2025-05-13 13:35:27 UTC

- reply

Similar to how most UX "solutions" fix problems that the product created in the first place.

2025-04-22 21:47:04 UTC

Computers beep a lot less than they used to. This is why so many people are depressed nowadays.

2025-04-06 15:18:35 UTC

"Build-measure-learn" - the premise of Big Tech development teams - is an ideology of waste. In reality it's "build, build, build" and all the stuff after that is an afterthought.
This week's issue covers UX designers who are finding ways to start with "learn" instead of starting with waste.
#UXDesign #UX #UserResearch #ProductManagement #softwaredevelopment
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/design-without-feedback-is-theater-why-design-goes-wrong-and-how-to-set-it-right-part-4

2025-03-25 17:58:09 UTC

https://mastodon.cloud/@jasongorman/114222118475570233
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/224/359/678/869/134/original/f541fb351a0e9ee4.png

2025-03-24 03:50:37 UTC

- reply

solution is simple, have 5±2 fingers

2025-03-23 19:35:57 UTC

Advice telling you to "just breathe" is incomplete.
You should "just breathe" a 60 ft cone of 10d6 fire damage. This will most likely solve your problem.

2025-03-21 15:45:51 UTC

This meeting should have been a duel.

2025-03-05 23:16:47 UTC

My hobby? Blackout #poetry
#tech #technology
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/112/369/444/974/514/original/209319c0e73da7a4.jpeg

2025-03-05 16:46:09 UTC

behave accordingly.
#tech #union #UnionStrong
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/110/833/050/244/199/original/d7048cd187710556.png

2025-01-17 23:16:32 UTC

Me clicking on a restaurant website: I wonder when they're open and what they serve
Restaurant website: O U R M I S S I O N

2024-12-17 19:37:30 UTC

Struggling to gain alignment with your colleagues? Simply forge sixteen powerful Rings to gift to key stakeholders, and one more to keep for yourself and dominate their wills

2024-12-11 14:34:54 UTC

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a thought influencer.
"10 lessons in business success I learned from my hard armor-plated back and dome-like belly divided into stiff arched segments" he typed with his numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk,

2024-09-10 01:59:32 UTC

A lot of people here celebrating certain follower thresholds but not "following".
I have now found nearly a thousand interesting people to follow on this website, and I think *that* is much more remarkable and enriching for my life than how many people read my extruded microblogging text product.

2024-09-02 18:31:58 UTC

New portfolio site for the first time since...whoa, it's been 5 years since I looked for a job
Anyway I'm looking for a job, please send any Lead+/Manager+ #UX design or #ProductManagement roles my way!
Https://pavelsamsonov.com

2024-08-22 15:32:49 UTC

It's time for the job hunt again. If you've been enjoying my posts now's your chance to see how I work!
If anyone has NY-based or remote #UX or #ProductManagement roles at the Lead/Manager/Director level, please sent them my way!
And if not - I'd still appreciate the signal boost.
#FediHired #GetFediHired #Jobhunt

2024-08-08 21:08:44 UTC

It's time for the job hunt again. If anyone has NY-based or remote #UX or #ProductManagement roles at the Lead/Manager/Director level, please sent them my way!
And if not - I'd still appreciate the signal boost.

2023-05-24 16:52:29 UTC

I'm an adventurous eater, but even I draw a line somewhere
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/424/694/527/919/331/original/47978f292a1f9fdf.png