Samuel Papin

Thoughts on tech, lifestyle, and work.

No AI writing

Top Of Mind: In 2026, I am reaching the conclusion that recommendation algorithms were, for the most part, a mistake. I worked at Twitter when it introduced algorithmic timeline, where the content in front of users was not only who they followed in reverse chronological order, but instead was a collection sorted by what the platform thought is the best. It made a happy community app become a platform where actors try to game the system (See Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election). Them, I worked at Google when the SEO was the worst it's ever been. It was a consistent game of cat and mouse where engineers would come with a great idea, like "Youtube videos are better when they are 20 minutes", test it with great success, and as everyone adapts to the algorithm, the quality falls again. Then I worked at Meta up until AI slop started to flood Instagram and short video with bait content.

So this year I am getting rid of content recommendation in my life:


Based in Boston.

Current: Software Engineer @ Hubspot

Prev: Airbus, Twitter, Google, Meta.

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