533: The Garage Is Open

Embedded.fm · 4 Sept 2026 · 59m · Episode 533

What this episode covers

Susan Lammers, author of the classic book 'Programmers at Work' and founder of Headbone Interactive, discusses the 40th anniversary edition of her book and the revival of her 1990s retro games on Steam. She reflects on interviewing pioneers like Toru Iwatani and Michael Hawley during the personal computer revolution, highlighting their drive for creative freedom from corporate mainframes. Lammers also shares insights from her time at Microsoft Press and her experience leading the early interactive CD-ROM division.

Mentioned

Companies
Microsoft, Headbone Interactive, 8080 Books, Simon & Schuster, Namco, Microsoft Press, Pixar
Products
Programmers at Work, VisiCalc, Ukatsuke Komachi, Elroy Goes Bugzerk, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, HyperCard
Also
Steam

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 26m

    The Showstopper Show

    Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal of Oxide Computer Company host a discussion with G. Pascal Zachary, author of 'Showstopper!', and Jessamyn West, daughter of Data General engineer Tom West, about the human cost of building Windows NT and the Eclipse minicomputer. Zachary and West analyze how the 'cult of the hotshot programmer' and the lack of modern software engineering practices led to severe personal anguish and family breakdowns for the teams at Microsoft and Data General. The conversation contrasts the 1990s 'battleship' development model with today's open-source, service-oriented software landscape, highlighting the shift from software as a static artifact to a continuous, often stressful, service.

  • Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast · 1h 21m

    Ep. 40 - Influential Media

    Hosts Steven Hawes and Thea Flowers of Opulo discuss the books, documentaries, and creators that shaped their engineering and entrepreneurial journeys. They highlight Steven's early inspiration from Everett Bradford's flamethrower and Thea's foundational experience with a NoPix Linux live CD. The conversation covers influential media like the book 'Schiit Happened', Bunnie Huang's 'The Hardware Hacker', and the documentary 'Developing Hell: Launching Hades', drawing parallels between open source hardware development and video game early access models.

  • Moore's Lobby · 2m

    Tune in for Season 3 of Moore's Lobby

    Host Daniel Bogdanoff introduces Season 3 of Moore's Lobby, highlighting upcoming conversations with industry leaders from NASA, IBM, and Google. The episode features clips from Season 2, including Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, and Luis Barroso, Senior VP of Engineering at Google, who describes early data center redundancy methods. It also showcases Steve Sanghi, CEO of Microchip, discussing his turnaround of the company from near-bankruptcy to a $5.5 billion tech giant.

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 43m

    Books in the box redux

    Guest Scott Johnson shares a detailed war story about being fired by Dave Mahoney after a corporate acquisition, illustrating the dangers of hiring leaders who are 'rich, not hungry' and lack marketing skills. The group discusses the importance of reading industry history, citing books like 'Soul of a New Machine' and 'Steve Jobs & the NeXT Big Thing' to understand organizational dynamics and failure modes. They also explore broader themes of social capital in 'Bowling Alone' and the ethical complexities of technology in 'IBM and the Holocaust'.

  • How I Built This · 15m

    Live From The HIBT Summit: Stewart Butterfield

    Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and Slack, discusses his history of pivoting from failed video games to successful software companies. He explains how the failure of 'Game Neverending' led to the creation of Flickr, and how the inability to explain the surreal nature of his next game, 'Glitch', combined with the shift to mobile, caused its shutdown. Butterfield emphasizes the importance of being able to clearly articulate a product's value to avoid the 'owner's delusion' that plagued Glitch but was eventually corrected in Slack's messaging.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Embedded.fm. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.