iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 13/08/2025

mommmm the boys are fighting again

Screenshot of news article on Elon Musk and San Altman's online spat.

Transcript:
The Rundown: Elon Musk announced on X that xAI is taking legal action against Apple over pushing OpenAI’s products in the App Store and suppressing rivals like Grok, with the conversation spiraling after Sam Altman accused X of similar tactics.

The details:

Musk’s claim that it’s “impossible for any company besides OAI to reach #1 in the App Store” was refuted on X, with DeepSeek and Perplexity as examples.

Musk then cited Altman’s own post receiving 3M views despite having 50x less followers, with Altman replying “skill issue” and “or bots”.

Grok was then tagged in, stating “Sam Altman is right” and noting Musk’s “documented history of directing algorithm changes to favor his interests.”

Musk posted a screenshot of GPT-5 declaring him as more trustworthy than Altman, also noting that xAI was working to fix Grok’s reliance on legacy media.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 25/05/2025

2nd fermentation has started! Excited for some strawberry hibiscus kombucha in a few days 💕

Photo of 6 flip top bottles of red kombucha with red fruit puree

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 22/05/2025

AD editor: ok but how do we appeal to gen-z? can we add some fun slang or something? AD writer: dont worry, I got it

Screenshot of article from Architectural Digest, titled "The Best Accent Chairs on Amazon Understood the Assignment"

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 17/05/2025

Starting kombucha fermentation today! wish me luck 🤞🏻

1 gallon glass jar filled with hibiscus sweet tea and SCOBY on oak shelf. Soon to be kombucha!

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 13/04/2025

Repost with your favorite image of James Bond (wrong answers only)

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 04/04/2025

If you have any itchy wool clothes, definitely give this a try- soak it in lukewarm water with a capful of conditioner for 30 min, then squeeze dry, reshape, and let dry. Tried it over the weekend with this vintage Scottish wool cardigan and happy to say that it's now much softer and wearable! ❤️

Photo of vintage red wool cardigan from Pringle of Scotland with gold buttons

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 30/03/2025

Heading into the last month of mussel season!

Plate of mussels cooked in tomato-garlic broth and chorizo. A plate of bread and glass of red wine sits nearby.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 17/02/2025

this living room rug, by iris apfel 😍

Photo of a bright turquoise rug with pink flamingos, parrots, and other tropical birds

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 10/02/2025

not even moved in yet and they've already found us

Photo of a Shen Yun 2025 advertisement resting on a countertop.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 09/02/2025

men only want one thing

Screenshot of text conversation about furniture buying. Sender: "okay, most of the big things are bought! One ones remaining are washer/dryer and the couch". Recipient: *sends a link to a TV*

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 04/02/2025

Breaking up your feed to share interior design shots from Gloria Steinem's brownstone in Manhattan

A vintage Moroccan pendant light illuminates the Clé tile-clad shower nook in the primary bath. Shower curtain in a fabric from Una Malan; walls in a custom color by Sydney Harbour Paint Co.; rug from Nazmiyal Collection.

A corner of the living room features a loft bed fashioned out of a salvaged front porch from Connecticut. A mural by Laura Emrick defines the seating area underneath.

A sofa upholstered in green velvet and trimmed with bullion fringe anchors the ground-floor living room. A salvaged carved wood doorway from Urban Archaeology surrounds a mirror on the back wall.

Steinem (wearing a Valentino Blouse, Nili Lotan corduroy trousers, Chanel boots, with a Joseff of Hollywood silver necklace and Karl Lagerfeld prototype bracelets) in the second-floor living room of her New York City residence. Blouse and Jewelry from Lily et Cie; Fashion styling by Nina and Clare Hallworth.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 03/02/2025

Been really liking these 3 custom Bsky feeds: - Mutuals: Posts from mutual follows, been liking this for a cozy "close friends" type feel - Popular with Friends: basically a curated "trending" feed of things you *actually* care about - Quiet Posters: take a walk in the road less posted 😇

Screenshot of 3 custom newsfeed in Bluesky: Mutuals by @skyfeed.xyz, Popular with Friends by @bsky.app, and Quiet Posters by @why.bsky.tram

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 02/02/2025

Toured Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito today- so much thoughtful craftsmanship & color ❤️ If you're looking for a fun weekend activity, highly recommend this one, followed by seafood lunch at Fish. right around the corner

Photo of front of Heath Ceramics Factory- a big blue wall with tall monospaces sans serif font reading "HEATH"

Photo of colorful vases from the Heath Ceramics shop. Rows of tomatillo green, salmon, and eggshell baby blue bud cases, round vases, and tall vases sit side by side on a wooden shelf.

Photo of a quality assurance shelf at Heath Ceramics Factory. Various plates, saucers, cups and vases sit grouped by color, with ideal color samples to ensure that glazing looks correct.

A photo of a blue wall with glaze color reference for employees in the foreground. In the background, stacks of fired, unglazed bowls and plates arranged nearly on shelves.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 23/01/2025

Agree, though on the flip side, the thought of ChatGPT unionizing is unabashedly funny

Screenshot of Louie Stowell's Bsky post reading, "Chat GPT unionising and beginning strike action was the plot twist I didn't know I needed in this world." In reply to a breaking news post from The Independent about Chat GPT going offline, headlined "ChatGPT is refusing to work"

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 23/01/2025

Interior design is keeping me sane this week. Current mood board:

Another photo of a honey oak wooden platform bed, set against a dark green wall. Tropical plants sit on the nightstand and just behind the bed, creating a resort-like feel. The bed has rumpled linen sheets of deep green, cool white and tan.

Photo of a black dog resting on a white sheet bed. Floaty gauzey white and peach curtains hang off from the tall vertical window and a round paper lantern hangs from the ceiling. It's calming here.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 21/01/2025

Brief break for your newsfeed: umm the Lego Lunar New Year collection is AMAZING?? I've never been an avid Lego collector, but now I totally understand the appeal - these are *stunningly* intricate and so well designed 🤯😍💕

Beautiful Lego money tree with hanging oranges and red envelopes in a red Lego pot

Lego Lunar New Year red and gold decor with hanging lanterns, night market scenes

Lego fan with flower and sparrow details with Lego persimmon, gold nuggets, scroll, paintbrush WITH A PAINTED TIP, blue and white vase with hanging red and gold ribbons. The detail here is absolutely extraordinary

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 15/01/2025

How I can tell Google's search results are getting worse: searched for examples of "process for process's sake" ..got content on sake brewing

Mobile screenshot of Google search results. At the top, the search terms are "process for process sake".

Below, an article on "SAKE BREWING PROCESS", followed by video content on sake brewing.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 06/01/2025

This was our last haul in October- daily limit is 35/person. We packed a big container of cooked rice, some seaweed, a picnic blanket and made fresh uni nigiris on the beach. It's a great family friendly weekend activity ☺️

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 06/01/2025

Ah, you should definitely go- it's right off of Mavericks Beach (see map). They're an invasive species, so it helps out the environment too! My recs: - Go during May/June & Sept/Oct during negative tide only - Tidepools are rocky so wear waterproof footwear - Metal spoons/shucking knives to pry them

Map of small peninsula in Pillar Point/Half Moon Bay showing a close-up of Mavericks Beach. A small oval area just offshore south of Mavericks Beach is drawn in blue. There be sea urchins!

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 03/01/2025

oooooh threads is trying to implement starter packs!

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 27/12/2024

Even sadder- it's not even an *original* bad idea... It's just a copy/paste from Whitney Herd at Bumble

Screenshot from article about AI dating personas suggested by Bumble's CEOA, Whitney Herd. The article reads, "One particular use of AI that Herd mentioned has gained traction online — although not everyone liked the idea. Herd proposed a scenario in which singles could use AI dating concierges as stand-ins for themselves when reaching out to prospective partners online.

'There is a world where your dating concierge could go and date for you with other dating concierge ... and then you don’t have to talk to 600 people,' she said during the summit."

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 18/12/2024

Alright y'all, say it together with me: Not All Apps Need A Year In Review 😑

Screenshot from Google One (a file storage feature) email, with the subject line, "Lucy, your 2024 Google One year in review is here", with a party emoji.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 13/12/2024

GUYS, my nutritionist just sent me the cutest holiday care package 🥺❤️

Photo of open care package containing: Burt's Bees Coconut Foot Cream, Flax Seed Eye Pillow, french lavender hand sanitizer, epsom salt, and peppermint digestion tea

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 09/12/2024

reading outside with this view 💕

Photo of an outdoor patio overlooking chaparral, orange trees, and blue-green mountain range in the distance. It's early evening and the sky is a cornflower blue, with a single brush stroke of cirrus cloud dragging the eye upwards, while low crowds of hazy pink-orange clouds nestle against the horizon, skimming the tips of the distant mountains.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 07/12/2024

Just learned that the CEO at a company I used to work at (which oft required customer service reps to volunteer for extra shifts over holidays) decided on a holiday gift to show appreciation for their work. No, not raises- they all got copies of a children's book that his teen daughter wrote 😐

Screenshot of anonymous employee's online post saying, "I'm honored to be part of helping the children of wealthy people who have so few opportunities in life due to their high status."

Screenshot of employee post, reading: "Lol can't believe he used company money to support his kids book sales but they can't afford bonuses or raises"

Screenshot of employee post, reading: "You shouldn't have, name redacted. No really..."

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 07/12/2024

Have been experimenting a lot more with vegetarian cooking of late and very proud of this baked tofu dish from dinner tonight - best paired with ketchup & mayo!

Photo of a dinner plate, stacked with what looks like fried chicken. A text caption overlaid on the photo reads, "This is tofu"

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 06/12/2024

No better feeling than realizing you have some free time in an upcoming weekend to dive into a good book ❤️ I like reading a few books at the same time, so that I can hop back & forth depending on my mood. Currently excited for Wind & Truth, How to Be a Patient & my yearly reread of The Book of Joy!

Book cover of Brandon Sanderson's Wind & Truth, book five of The Storm light Archive series

Book cover of How to be a Patient, an essential guide to navigating the world of modern medicine, by Sana Goldberg, RN.

The Book of Joy, a series of inspiring conversations on happiness and joy between his holiness the Dala Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recorded by Douglas Adams.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 06/12/2024

woahh I will NOT STAND for this clippy slander! like all misunderstood genius, clippy was just ahead of its time

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 05/12/2024

oh wait someone else said this too, I'm unoriginal 😭

Social media screenshot of user, jochen.brillowski, saying, "looks like cleaning the water from the brush after painting with watercolors in school"

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 05/12/2024

you know that leftover water cup you use to clean paintbrushes after a children's art activity? TIL there's a name for that color!

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 03/12/2024

I literally just ordered a custom watercolor last week from an illustration studio that has been doing this exact thing: not only emphasizing the humans creating the artwork but ALSO, giving their names AND sharing an entire photo gallery of the team! I think we're gonna see a LOT more of this.

Screenshot of company website emphasizing the handmade, human nature of their artwork, accompanied by actual photos of their team drawing.

Text reads, "At Letterfest we all believe in a future where handmade things created by artists, designers and makers to gift to other people help build a future full of meaning.
Whether it's Tom, who heads up illustration, ensuring every drawing is crafted with precision and love, or Tiff, one of our talented pot artists who brings creativity and dedication to each hand-engraved terracotta pot, our team pour passion into every piece.

I've included some photos of the team in action below, so you can see the care and dedication that goes into our personalised gifts.
Thank you for being part of our journey and supporting our community of artists and makers!

Here’s to a future full of things made with love and passion,
James x"

Below, a photo of one of their artists drawing in action.

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 29/11/2024

Been beta-testing Oura's AI assistant feature.. these types of responses are why more companies need to be thinking critically about incorporating user safety into their designs. The RIGHT response here should be to talk to a medical professional

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 27/11/2024

My product coachee who's been wanting to switch into PM just sent me this- so proud! 🥹❤️

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 24/11/2024

omg these are irrevocably intertwined with this book for me- me and my best friend would spend our lunch periods folding stars and cranes for all of our friends

Book cover of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 19/11/2024

Funnily, I actually train my IG algorithm to only show cute cats (esp ragdolls) and samoyeds! Takes like 5 min a day for a few days and then you're set 😍

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 19/11/2024

The way the UX for medication packaging has improved so much in the past decade 🥹

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 18/11/2024

There's still clear issues in the accuracy of data synthesis w LLMs, but we've seen a pretty significant leaps in one-shot image search for shopping with apps like Google Lens and Beni. I think what you're describing isn't too far off either (e.g. Google Shopping's latest redesign)

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 16/11/2024

One thing I do love about living near the mountains are these views

View of an orange orchard and sunset mountains in the distance

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Lucy Chen @lucychen.com · 15/11/2024

3. Recognizing that AI is a tool that can be used for both good and bad, how might "beneficial" (pro-individual rights, democracy) nations defensively use AI to protect against tyrannical govts? I'm sadly pessimistic about this and this paragraph will keep me up at night

Screenshot of essay, reading "Unfortunately, I see no strong reason to believe AI will preferentially or structurally advance democracy and peace, in the same way that I think it will structurally advance human health and alleviate poverty. Human conflict is adversarial and AI can in principle help both the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. If anything, some structural factors seem worrying: AI seems likely to enable much better propaganda and surveillance, both major tools in the autocrat’s toolkit. It’s therefore up to us as individual actors to tilt things in the right direction: if we want AI to favor democracy and individual rights, we are going to have to fight for that outcome. I feel even more strongly about this than I do about international inequality: the triumph of liberal democracy and political stability is not guaranteed, perhaps not even likely, and will require great sacrifice and commitment on all of our parts, as it often has in the past."

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