iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 9m

Are these lionbrand heartland? 👀 I have a blanket I made with similar colors, including a purple-y one!

An orange, yellow, green, and purple striped blanket with white stripes in between

000

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 03/10/2026

Mines pretty dang accurate but I'm a little offended it assumed my cohost is a dude lol.

Illustrated character reference sheet titled "BRITTANY - Engineer · Builder · Storyteller," in warm ivory, sky blue, sage green, and honey gold. Brittany is a woman with light skin and long brown balayaged hair. She wears a hand-knit cardigan, jeans, and adidas shoes.

The large hero portrait shows her smiling beside a standing desk, holding a sketchbook full of developer stick-figure comics. Her cozy home office contains a podcast microphone on a boom arm, a laptop with code and a social feed open, a small blue butterfly pin on a corkboard, a basket of yarn with a half-finished crochet blanket, a stack of computer science textbooks, and kids' crayon drawings taped to the wall. A blue heeler dog sleeps curled on a rug at her feet. Through a rainy window, tall evergreen trees and Pacific Northwest clouds.

Six expression portraits are labeled "Thinking," "Debugging," "Hello," "Aha!," "Hot Take," and "Recharging." Four full-body views show her outfit from the front, three-quarter angle, side, and back.

Under "A Life in Ideas," she records a podcast laughing into a microphone across from a co-host, speaks on a conference stage beside a slide of one of her stick-figure drawings, kneels in a raised-bed pollinator garden with bees and flowers, and crochets on the couch with the blue heeler leaning against her.

Bottom panels show a close-up of crochet stitches, a stick-figure doodle, a microphone, a butterfly pin, her silhouette, and six color swatches. Handwritten notes include "overcommitted, on purpose," "the balanced engineer," and "Timber, always nearby."

1210

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 26/09/2026

How you know you're getting ready for a wild Friday night.

A 500 piece puzzle getting ready to get solved 💪

4460

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 23/09/2026

Me spinning up a quick lil Astra session to resolve some merge conflicts on an old PR

"What is my purpose" meme, Rick saying "You resolve merge conflicts" and the sad little robot saying "oh my god"

41629

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 20/09/2026

AI Discourse in in 2026 Tag yourself, I'm a neutral AI lover.

An AI Alignment chart, from Optimist to Pessimist (about AI futures) and Hater to Lover.

Lover/Optimist: e/acc and whatever is happening on LinkedIn
Lover/Neutral: "AI has been pretty life-changing"
Lover/Pessimist: P(doom) > 10%, rationalists, and EAs
Neutral/Optimist: "One day AI might be helpful"
True Neutral: "This is a neat new tool"
Neutral/Pessimist: "I'm tired of AI being shoved down my throat"
Hater/Optimist: "It's just fancy autocomplete"
Hater/Neutral: "Slop"
Hater/Pessimist: "Clanker"

2310010

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 18/09/2026

Me, trying to keep up with everything this week

"I should buy a boat" meme cat with "Maybe I should have a cult"

215310

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 11/09/2026

My profile would cost $16.69 on X! xbill.bisks.net The Everything App* *For people who can afford it

5493

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 06/09/2026

Definitely Wolverine. Healing powers and living forever sounds awesome.

Anonymous question: If you could have any Marvel hero's powers, what would they be?

5161

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 04/09/2026

Also here's my custom board from the folks I follow 👀 It takes 8 of me to make a @hankgreen.bsky.social. It looks like it orders people by the number of followers so now I really want to see what his board looks like on 2048.social @gui.do this is so cool!

Jade Dickinson - 2, Alex Moon - 4, Skeeter Washington III - 8, Ashton - 16, Aturi - 32, Adam Fortuna - 64, Flower Shop - 128

Sam Harsimony - 256, Rebecca Diamond - 512, Brooklyn Zelenka - 1024, Me - 2048, Chip Huyen - 4096, Aendra - 8192, Hank Green - 16384

170

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 04/09/2026

Also can I just talk about how much I like this sign in method of showing people what to expect it to ask for BEFORE signing in, and what it's going to write? 👀👏

sign in text showing what lexicons the app will ask for and a link to see what it writes

1170

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 04/09/2026

Apparently two @pds.dad 's make a me, and two mes make a @dame.is!

3162

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

#Atproto is very easy to build on, with a great developer experience, so if you want you can also make your own! You can create your perfect Bluesky experience, just for you, and plug it into the atproto network with millions of people on it. Yes, that means you can make your own edit button.

2120

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

Your data lives in a folder on a Personal Data Server (PDS). If you sign up on @bsky.app, they create one for you by default, but you can take that folder and move it anywhere. That's why you can sign in to @blackskyweb.xyz and see your Bluesky posts. It's the same data! Just a different view.

A stick figure holding a box with a DID, handle, and filled with data (posts, images, blogs, videos, etc)

1121

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

Here's what that actually looks like. You, as a user, get a Decentralized Identifier (DID), and a handle (because that DID doesn't roll off the tongue very easy). You can set that handle to any domain you own, which is why mine is @brittanyellich.com Atproto made domains cool again ✨

A stick figure waving with a DID and a Handle under them

1140

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

Well, that's where #atproto and The Atmosphere come in. This is the collection of apps all built around a protocol and central idea: YOU as the user own your data. You can move around to any of the islands connected through the protocol, using the same underlying data that you ultimately control.

Lots of islands, all connected together. Bluesky, Tangled, Streamplace, Leaflet, Grain, people can move in between them

2478

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

Even worse, sometimes the platform leaves you. Things on the internet don't always last forever. Sometimes they shut down, sometimes they go defunct, and sometimes some billionaire buys them and turns it into their own crappy play space over night. And you can't really do anything about it!

A stick figure looking at a graveyard of Google+, Myspace, and Twitter

1140

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

So why do people stick around as the service gets worse? When a platform owns your data, leaving means abandoning everything. Your posts, your family and friends, your history.. Everything. Leaving a social site is daunting. After all, this is the only way people keep in touch now!

A lonely stick figure rowing away from Facebook Island, where their family, friends, and groups are

2170

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 27/08/2026

Most tech platforms follow the same arc. They launch with lofty goals to connect humans, grow by maximizing your addiction to them, find ways to monetize (usually through ads), and then enshittify the experience over time to squeeze as much money out as possible.

Social slot service with a pull handle on a phone, with likes and notifications

1150

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 24/08/2026

It's funny, our percentage doesn't seem that far off BUT my map seems way more colored in. I go to all the big states apparently 😂

My map of the US where I've lived and visited. 32/50 visited, 64% complete, 5 lived in

290

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 24/08/2026

I think I may officially be an Old, because these might be my new favorite candy.

11590

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 22/08/2026

Which I guess also means something like this is happening

The Ghost pottery making scene, but Claude is Patrick Swayze

819712

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 19/08/2026

Okay but this is actually a great idea to do 😂 Love this @pds.dad 👏

A parody post of me reading: Just realized my "recreational" CS degree is basically a massive excuse to feed more markdown to my agents. Spent the morning optimizing a loop to auto-summarize lecture notes into Obsidian. My brain is a hard drive and I am the user interface 🥲

2231

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 13/08/2026

Seeing all these eclipse photos just reminds me of

A photo of the Mars moon eclipsing the sun with a comment saying "humiliating. Looks like shit. Yet another massive W for earth, the best planet in the universe."

1358561

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 13/08/2026

Having some big "Back in my day" feelings about this tool for making friendship bracelets. These kids have it so easy.

A make it real friendship bracelet maker with a pattern guide and a spot to hold each string

2301

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 11/08/2026

I recently went down a YouTube rabbithole about people spinning their pets fur into yarn and I am about to have the WEIRDEST new hobby ❤️

A long haired blue heeler dog, with two black patches on his ears and brown eyes

6690

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 04/08/2026

Yeah that makes sense! You would have to do the posting yourself, it just allows you to interact with posts through the Attie app, it doesn't actually allow Attie to post on your behalf.

An example of liking a post from within the Attie app

110

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 03/08/2026

Oooh would love to chat! I made crate.social so I could get my notes on my website and be able to update them easily, but would love to have this plug into a larger PKM solution 😁

Screenshot of crate.social, has many notes about software things like career, AWS, availability, databases, etc

120

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 01/08/2026

These finally arrived, I have been influenced! 👀 Looking forward to trying them out! @kollagesquare.bsky.social

Double pointed needles and a crochet hook from kollage

110

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 01/08/2026

@middleearth.quest keeps trying to get me to give up my silly walk. Not happening!

DMs with Middle-earth Quest where it's trying to convince me to look at some enticing things to potentially swap my current item

6332

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 25/07/2026

Updated my keycaps and mat and it feels like a whole new space now 😌

A blue keyboard with pastel rainbow colored key caps and rainbow LEDs on a purple mat with sleeping orange kitties

61013

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 19/07/2026

Kids indoor playgrounds would be the perfect place for crafting meetups. Yarn from @yarndragon24.bsky.social 🧶🐉

A burnt orange ball of yarn and half-finished crochet project in front of a bunch of kids toys

0300

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 19/07/2026

Me after Discover has blessed me with so much fiber arts content

I should buy a boat cat saying "I should buy a loom"

3444

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 18/07/2026

I might have overdressed for our meeting today. Sweater by @goose.art 🪿

Me wearing a business goose sweater in front of some geese

2773

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 14/07/2026

Burgerville Vancouver, WA ⭐ $ The Northwest Cheeseburger from Burgerville, with Tillamook cheddar cheese, as well as mayo, ketchup, pickles, tomato, and lettuce. The only fast food burgers I'll eat. Decent value. The sides are often better than the burgers but it tastes like nostalgia. #CBDB

A burger wrapped in paper with cheese draped over the edges of the bun

10361

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 12/07/2026

Another one down, Sylveon! Good thing there are so many Eevolutions to work through.

4370

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 09/07/2026

Some recommendations, if anyone is looking for them. Also check out Governable Spaces by Nathan Schneider.

The virtual community by Howard Rheingold, personal connections in the digital age by Nancy Bay, and building successful online communities by Robert Kraut and Paul Resnick

5311

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 08/07/2026

I've been avoiding physical books because of the lack of ability to easily save/revisit highlights for them, but it looks like @readwise.bsky.social already solved that 👀 This is one of my favorite tools of all time.

A picture of a page in a book about community with some text highlighted. The book is Building Successful Online Communities

2272

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 30/06/2026

Checking out the photos from #CascadiaJS and realizing I may do a few too many hand gestures during talks 👐🫵🤌👌🫲🫱

11430

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 19/06/2026

It's a nice way to get both a souvenir AND a project 😂 I'm also currently working on something with the yarn I got from there 😁

100

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 17/06/2026

Maybe it's a new hobby. Maybes it's a ✨ Midlife Crisis ✨

241875

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 10/06/2026

I realized after changing jobs recently how much of my wardrobe was taken up by GitHub and other tech company shirts. I decided to go find some things to replace them, which led me to this masterpiece.

111723

Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 09/06/2026

Do y'all ever go back and listen to old playlists you've made? I have so many of them and I always wonder what the heck was going through my head when this was made. Why does this exist. There must be a back story.

A playlist called "Focus". It has 2 songs, one is "The breaking of the Fellowship" from Lord of the Rings, the other is Fly by Meadowlark. They're added over a month apart on this playlist.

9281