About ⭐

¶ Illya Starikov is a Software Engineer established in San Francisco, California. 🌉 Illya currently works at Google, applying AI & ML to build the future of digital communication. ★ Illya spends his free time with his partner Taylor 🐝 🐻 and their two cats Bodie 🐈 and Mallory 🐈‍⬛ . Слава Україні. 🇺🇦

Hello 👋—I’m Illya. Welcome to my corner of the internet.

This is where I share what’s happening in my life here. These are my words, my experiences, and my thoughts—algorithmically unelevated, unsponsored for flavor.

I can’t predict everything I’ll publish, but I can promise to keep it interesting.

Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale... if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world... somebody lied. — Peter Parker

🌻 Luhansk, Ukraine was home for the first six years of my life. My body lives elsewhere, but my family—and my roots—remain there.

🛤️ My mom and I then moved to a small town outside St. Louis, Missouri, where I spent my formative years.

⛏️ I graduated from Missouri University of Science and Technology—Missouri  S&T—in Rolla. Go Miners! During college I spent a summer interning with Garmin in Los  Angeles, CA. 🏖️

🍖 After another internship, I accepted my first full‑time role at Garmin and moved to Kansas City, Missouri—home of legendary barbecue. Joe’s  Kansas  City is still my go‑to, though Ted Lasso fans might recognize Arthur  Bryant’s.

🌉 A visit to the Bay  Area sealed the deal: I joined Google and headed west. My first years here coincided with the pandemic, so I entertained myself by skateboarding and one‑wheeling around Stanford in Palo  Alto and exploring San  Francisco. Simpler times.

🐝 My partner, Taylor, and I met in Kansas City, savoring Guy Fieri’s tacos and watching mechanical bull-riding under the chilly night sky in the Power & Light District. Next thing I knew, I was outnumbered; Taylor brought her multiple cats into my life.

🌐 I have been writing on and off online since  2014 — around the same time I first got Wi‑Fi. Since then, I’ve experimented with WordPress, Tumblr, and even hand‑coded sites using raw HTML/CSS (plus a dash of Bootstrap). My pet-projects have included an Apple‑centric blog (thatFruitThing), cheat‑sheets for the trivia hit Trivia  Crack amongst others (Answer Keychain), and the occasional portfolio pages showcasing whatever work I had at the time. None of them stuck; they were hobbies that came and went.

Instead of writing what I think people would want to read about, I’ve decided to write what I want to write about. An empty canvas for everything I find interesting. ★