🪴LYC

🪴LYC

API 01

Mar 07, 2026

2026-03-07 14:15 Tags:Technical Literacy

Love this question. If you understand API thinking, your technical literacy jumps a lot — especially for the kind of automation and startup work you’re already doing (n8n, scraping Reddit, connecting Notion, etc.).

Let’s build the concept slowly and intuitively, not like a CS textbook.

1. What an API actually is (in plain English)

API = Application Programming Interface

But honestly that definition is useless.

A better mental model:

An API is a waiter in a restaurant.

  • You (the client) tell the waiter what you want.

  • The waiter goes to the kitchen (the system).

  • The waiter brings back your food (the data).

You don’t go into the kitchen yourself.

That’s exactly what APIs do.

Example:

You ask Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/top.json?t=week&limit=10

You’re basically saying:

Hey Reddit, give me the top 10 posts this week.

Reddit’s server sends back data.

Usually in JSON format.

2. The 3 core pieces of every API request

When you call an API, three things exist.

1️⃣ Endpoint

The URL you call.

Example:

https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions

Think of it as the address of the kitchen.

2️⃣ Request

What you send.

Usually:

  • parameters

  • headers

  • body

Example:

limit=10
t=week

You are saying:

give me the top posts for the week.

3️⃣ Response

The data you get back.

Usually JSON.

Example simplified:

{
  "data": {
    "children": [
      {
        "title": "How I reached FIRE",
        "ups": 1200,
        "num_comments": 250
      }
    ]
  }
}

That’s the raw data your automation processes.

3. The key shift: API Thinking

Most beginners think:

“I need to manually copy data.”

People with API thinking think like this:

Everything on the internet is a data source.

If a website exists → there is usually an API.

And if there’s an API:

You can automate it.

Examples:

SystemAPI Use
Redditfetch posts
Notionwrite database entries
Stripecheck payments
OpenAIgenerate text
Google Calendarcreate events

Your automation becomes:

API → Process → API

Example of your Reddit workflow:

Reddit API
   ↓
n8n workflow
   ↓
Filter posts
   ↓
Notion API
   ↓
Save database

You just built a data pipeline.

4. The 4 API patterns you’ll see everywhere

If you learn these, 80% of APIs will make sense.

GET

Get data.

Example:

GET /posts

Meaning:

Give me posts.

POST

Create something.

Example:

POST /tasks

Meaning:

Create a new task.

PUT / PATCH

Update something.

Example:

PATCH /task/123

Meaning:

Update task 123.

DELETE

Delete something.

Example:

DELETE /task/123

Meaning:

Delete task 123.

5. What makes someone “API fluent”

When people become technical founders, they start seeing systems like this:

Instead of seeing apps:

Reddit
Notion
OpenAI
Stripe

They see:

Reddit API
Notion API
OpenAI API
Stripe API

And they think:

What happens if I connect these?

That’s literally how most startups are built now.

Example products:

ProductAPIs connected
Zapiereverything
n8neverything
LangChainLLM APIs
Many SaaS toolsStripe + Auth + AI

The modern internet is basically:

APIs talking to APIs.

6. Why this matters for YOU

You’re already doing things most beginners don’t.

You already:

  • built n8n automation

  • call Reddit JSON endpoint

  • send data to Notion

  • design workflow pipelines

That is API thinking in practice.

The difference now is:

Before:

I’m building a workflow.

After:

I’m orchestrating APIs.

This mental shift is huge.

7. Best resources to learn API thinking

These are the best beginner → advanced resources.

Postman API beginner guide

Very good practical explanation:

https://learning.postman.com/docs/getting-started/introduction/

FreeCodeCamp API course

Great tutorial:

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-an-api/

JSON guide (super important)

https://www.json.org/json-en.html

REST API tutorial

https://restfulapi.net/

8. If you want to go one level deeper

Next technical literacy topics that pair with APIs:

1️⃣ JSON parsing
2️⃣ Authentication (API keys)
3️⃣ Pagination
4️⃣ Rate limits
5️⃣ Webhooks

These are the real API skills builders use.

9. A small exercise (related to your Reddit workflow)

Open this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/top.json?t=week&limit=5

Try to answer:

1️⃣ Where is the title field
2️⃣ Where is upvotes
3️⃣ Where is comments

If you can find those three things inside the JSON structure:

You officially understand API + JSON reading.

If you want, next I can also show you something VERY useful for your automation journey:

The 5 API tricks builders use constantly

(pagination, rate limits, webhooks, auth, idempotency)

Once you understand those, you basically unlock technical founder literacy.

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