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FinTech = Fin + Tech. But what is tech? No really what is it? We all see the word so many times but only a small minority of the population around the world have actual experience of what Tech is. In this episode we dive into software and software development from the earliest days up to the present. I am delighted to be joined by Charlie Barker CTO of Blue Motor Finance, Europe’s fasting growing company to discuss these issues.

It is a very weird aspect of the tech/digital revolution. Very few of us I imagine are plumbers but most of us imagine have a good idea of what plumbers do. Of course not in detail and not what makes a great plumber but we have a real feel for pipes, leaks, stop cocks etc. This visibility is a really interesting way in. With tech we only ever see the results – something we use. But we never see the insides, under the bonnet, inside the tech factory as it were, what are they doing? What tools? What approaches, what challenges?

As a kid I used to love Birmingham’s Science museum. Well back in the day Birmingham was one of the manufacturing centres of the world, adjacent to the so-called Black Country. This left it with a great science museum which was full of huge objects. When small I’d stand next to some giant steam engine and even if you couldn’t see the insides, a bit like the world of a plumber, all of the quotes tech was clear. Wheels, boilers, rack and pinions.

But human development has reached the very abstract stage. Whats the equivalent of the 19thC steam engines? Obviously the computer, the PC, the phone, the chip. But if you take your kids to a museum of modern tech they at most get to stare through a cabinet at a chip in which nothing whatsoever is visible.

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