What We Talk About When We Talk About Tech

From technical stories to user stories: APIs and the evolution of the tech industry with Lorinda Brandon and Mike Amundsen

• Rich Gall, Jennifer Riggins, Lorinda Brandon, Mike Amundsen • Season 1 • Episode 18

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Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to Lorinda Brandon and Mike Amundsen about APIs and the evolution of the tech industry in the last 30 years in a very special episode - the first to feature two guests. 

We discussed issues of equality in the industry, in particular how 'women in tech' has emerged only in recent years - Lorinda offers her perspective on what it was like working as a woman in tech in the eighties, and also explains what frustrates her about the way we talk about toxicity in the industry today. 

We also talked storytelling, and how the stories we tell about technology - and the way we explain technologies - have moved from the purely technical to the user-centric. In the context of APIs, Lorinda and Mike explain, this is particularly important, as it demonstrates not only their ubiquity but also the fact that they are things for which the value is today obvious to many. It wasn't always that way - Lorinda and Mike undoubtedly played a huge role in getting us to where we are now. 

The episode also looks at the nature of the information ecosystem, and how established experts like Mike and Lorinda transfer and share their knowledge. For Mike this is often about presenting and narrativising problems in books: for Lorinda it's about building relationships with teams in a way that allows her to guide people, to support them to uncover their own solutions. 

Not only was this a wide-ranging conversation, it was also exceptionally fun, so thanks to Lorinda and Mike. Enjoy!