iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Just five minutes of a student acrobat doing her little drills and tricks all through 2025. If you're quick you might spot a hang glider and a cat! youtu.be/g3Kh8hdQGWc

youtu.be

Rachel Grey 2025 Training Montage

YouTube video by Rachel Grey

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

My prettiest few photos from 2025... only two of them contain cats. photos.app.goo.gl/gi7YDeJr5R1R...

photos.app.goo.gl

Artsiness 2025 · Jan 1 – Oct 26, 2025 📸

Shared album · Tap to view!

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Rest here, weary traveler: a lady, who is me, installs a window blind. Nothing goes wrong.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

"I didn't expect that MY death would, unfortunately, be worth it in 2025". Irony can be pretty ironic.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Dating is expensive, that's all I'm sayin', big G.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Ouch. I feel bad for the young people who got bait-and-switched here. With older techies leaving the industry in droves due to culture changes, you'd think companies would be wise to invest in them. Or maybe they don't know that senior developers grow from junior ones?

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

I am, perhaps unsurprisingly, digging the idea of a search engine for which I (and not the advertiser) am the customer, and where the engine's incentive is to make me happy rather than urge me to buy something. Will probably check out Kagi soon.

Thanks for the kind words, Liz! I think of you as the real legend here -- and you're still in the fray, working to make the entire industry better and more humane, which I deeply respect. Your note reminds me how hard we all tried though, and how much of a feeling of kinship there was in the trying.

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"New Googler" == Noogler. They're still called that today!

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My recollection is that most Googlers weren't jerks about it though -- to the extent that anyone "felt entitled" to the perks, which mostly we didn't, people felt that sharing more with employees was great for everyone and that other companies should be doing it too. Maybe someday...

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Some of the comments are already going toward "the poor Big Tech babies lost their perks", of course, and that's understandable. Experiencing some of the earlier days *did* expand our Overton windows by showing us a different model for sharing profits with employees.

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I'm glad that Kate quoted me discussing the broken promises Google made regarding AI, and the ethical concerns I had when performance management and promotions became other than purely merit-based.

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So Long to Tech’s Dream Job

Gift link below -- I got to share space in an article along with @lizthegrey.com , where we both spoke with @kateconger.com about changes in Big Tech over the years. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/t...

nytimes.com

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

wow, the art on this one is so so beautiful. (And the content so sad...) Alcohol has never made me feel better when I'm down, and at this point in life I'm pretty sure that was a blessing.

Look for "3-strand end bar" for one piece of that puzzle!

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Not only is climate change destabilizing to basically every nation, and likely to put pressure on democratic institutions as climate-related migration increases, but (at least in the US), branches of the military are already deeply involved in relevant, affected areas like rivers and water supply.

This isn't *my* new and different idea, but I read a book called "Climate Change and the Nation State" which made a very good case for getting the militaries of the world involved and concerned.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

The beauty-industrial complex responds to climate change: or, my glimpse of hell during today's CVS visit.

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My 48th birthday was yesterday and all's well

A woman doing a handstand in flowy pants.

A cake made from a stack of crepes, with raspberries on top.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

This is on my shelf and likely to be my next paper book. Glad to hear it's a fun one!

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Ah, the social sciences. You can die in obscurity or live to see your research co-opted by advertising.

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

A quick shout-out to Ayo Edebiri, whose name just appeared in two consecutive NYT crossword puzzles. I can see I'll be well rewarded for remembering her. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayo_Ede...

en.wikipedia.org

Ayo Edebiri - Wikipedia

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Having now read Playground by Richard Powers, I'm actively annoyed that this won the Booker prize. I read it for a book club at work, and as a result I looked up Booker Prize winners... it turns out I didn't like them. From now on the Booker will be a strike *against* any book I haven't read yet.

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Some things are even more interesting after they break. I'd love to draw these shapes and shadows sometime!

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I spent the month of March quitting my job at Google, a time consuming endeavor that led to me not posting an outdoor handstand photo in March. I'm giving myself a pass on that, all things considered, but I'll also post two in April. Here's the first.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

The sky thinks you're wrong about that snow... sigh. This may not be like the time we got 18" on April 1, but it's LATER. Cruelest month, indeed.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

New Black Mirror season this Friday, and now there's going to be a new Love Death + Robots collection in mid-May? We are rich in dark science fiction, to go with our dark reality. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnvk...

youtube.com

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS VOLUME 4 | Official Teaser | Netflix

YouTube video by Netflix

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I like when people create, though. The idea of a person intrinsically not *being* artistic is unfairly limiting.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I love the one that's basically of your amazing lamp!

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Challenging here too. But you and your flippy hair hair have got this! Just one hour at a time.

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I do this on Friday for the first time in a decade, and then can't figure out why my weekend workouts feel so tired. A mystery.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

More drawing homework. As a friend of mine said, they are *very* abstract nudes...

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I can see arguments for all of these. But I don't think it makes sense that the answer must involve maximizing exactly one of them, for a business to be considered in good standing.

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

A business makes more than it spends. Now the extra money gets to go somewhere, which is nice. Does it go to a) shareholders, b) workers, c) customers, d) the state, e) the community at large, f) someone else (patent holders)?

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

I do not, BUT this is why I do handstands -- they're about bringing focus back to the same simple things over and over again, with the added feedback of falling down to let you know when your mind has wandered.

Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

I happened to stumble across the "I know I'm being successful when..." list I wrote around 2020. The first item on that list is still my favorite: "I know I'm being successful when... at least one cat seeks me out on a regular basis." What lets you know you're living the way you want to?

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

No interesting answers, just ACLU and (small but repeating) to the DNC so they can retain staff and be ready for next round.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Hey friend, is there any chance you can tell work you're sick today and curl up with tea and a book? The world is very loud, you've taken some hits lately, and it's Friday.

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Rachel Grey @greyoctagon.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

A bit of handstand choreography I learned this morning. It could use some smoothing out, but I already like how it feels.