GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded for GOTO State of the Art in October 2025.
https://gotopia.tech

Read the full transcription of this interview here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/415

Nathen Harvey - DORA Lead, Product Manager at Google Cloud & Author
Charles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & Consultant

RESOURCES
Nathen
https://bsky.app/profile/nathenharvey.bsky.social
https://x.com/nathenharvey
https://github.com/nathenharvey
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathen
https://linktr.ee/nathenharvey
http://nathenharvey.com

Charles
https://bsky.app/profile/charleshumble.bsky.social
https://linkedin.com/in/charleshumble
https://mastodon.social/@charleshumble
https://conissaunce.com

Links
https://dora.dev
https://dora.dev/research/2025/dora-report
https://dora.dev/research/2024/dora-report
https://thenewstack.io/ebooks/kubernetes/kubernetes-at-the-edge-container-orchestration-at-scale

DESCRIPTION
Charles Humble speaks with Nathen Harvey, leader of Google's DORA research team, about the real impact of AI on software development.

Drawing from surveys of nearly 5,000 practitioners, Nathen reveals a surprising finding: increased AI adoption initially correlates with decreased stability and throughput - the very metrics teams have optimized for decades. The conversation explores why this happens, what capabilities organizations need before scaling AI adoption, and how AI acts as an amplifier of existing systems rather than a silver bullet.

Nathen introduces DORA's seven AI capabilities model and discusses critical issues around trust, documentation, skill devaluation, and the future of software delivery in an AI-native world.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Emily Freeman & Nathen Harvey • 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know • https://amzn.to/3UlWBLt
Charles Humble • Professional Skills for Software Engineers • https://www.conissaunce.com/professional-skills-shortcut
Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble & Gene Kim • Accelerate • https://amzn.to/442Rep0
Kim, Humble, Debois, Willis & Forsgren • The DevOps Handbook • https://amzn.to/47oAf3l
Jez Humble & David Farley • Continuous Delivery • https://amzn.to/452ZRky
Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky & Barry O'Reilly • Lean Enterprise • https://amzn.to/47pcOXD
Adrienne Braganza Tacke • "Looks Good to Me": Constructive Code Reviews • https://amzn.to/3E75XrD
Yevgeniy Brikman • Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery • https://amzn.to/3WMPMFU
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This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.
http://gotopia.tech/bookclub

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/episodes/413

Alexandre Malavasi - CTO at Marelo & Author of "Modern Full-Stack Web Development with ASP.NET Core"
Albert S. Tanure - Cross Solutions Architec at Microsoft & Author of "ASP.NET Core 9 Essentials"

RESOURCES
Alexandre
https://x.com/alemalavasi
https://github.com/alexandremalavasi
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandremalavasi

Albert
https://x.com/alberttanure
https://github.com/tanure
https://www.linkedin.com/in/albert-tanure
https://www.codefc.io/en

DESCRIPTION
Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect Albert Tanure interviews Microsoft MVP Alexandre Malavasi about his fourth book, "Modern Full-Stack Web Development with ASP.NET Core". The discussion explores the challenges of writing comprehensive technical books, the importance of foundational knowledge in full stack development, and how to integrate ASP.NET Core with modern JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js.

Alexandre emphasizes that successful architecture decisions depend primarily on team expertise and the ability to facilitate change, rather than following trends.
The conversation also highlights the critical importance of looking beyond just coding - encompassing project planning, DevOps practices, monitoring, and continuous optimization - to truly bring value to customers and become well-rounded software engineers.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Alexandre Malavasi • Modern Full-Stack Web Development with ASP.NET Core • https://amzn.to/4pvEXnY
Alexandre Malavasi • Implementing Design Patterns in C# 11 and .NET 7 • https://amzn.to/49Capwn
Alexandre Malavasi • Enterprise Applications with C# and .NET • https://amzn.to/4iiVidk
Alexandre Malavasi • Implementing Design Patterns in C# and .NET 5 • https://amzn.to/3JU5UD2
Albert Tanure • ASP.NET Core 9 Essentials • https://amzn.to/43bH73t
Bluesky
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LinkedIn
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This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.
https://gotopia.tech

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/410

Holden Karau - Co-Founder at Fight Health Insurance
Julian Wood - Serverless Developer Advocate at AWS

RESOURCES
Holden
https://bsky.app/profile/holdenkarau.com
https://twitter.com/holdenkarau
https://github.com/holdenk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/holdenkarau
http://holdenkarau.com

Julian
https://bsky.app/profile/julianwood.com
https://twitter.com/julian_wood
https://github.com/julianwood
http://www.wooditwork.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianrwood

Resource
https://fighthealthinsurance.com

DESCRIPTION
Apache Spark contributor Holden Karau discusses the evolution of distributed data processing, the challenges of integrating machine learning with big data tools, and the technical complexities of working with GPUs at scale.

The conversation takes a personal turn as Holden reveals her latest project: an open-source AI tool that helps people appeal health insurance claim denials. Drawing from personal experiences with denied claims, she has built a system that trains on independent medical review data to generate effective appeals, making it freely available at https://fighthealthinsurance.com while grappling with the classic open-source challenge of sustainable funding.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Holden Karau • Distributed Computing 4 Kids • https://www.distributedcomputing4kids.com
Holden Karau • Scaling Python with Dask • https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/scaling-python-with/9781098119867
Holden Karau & Boris Lublinsky • Scaling Python with Ray • https://amzn.to/44GU6cC
Holden Karau & Rachel Warren • High Performance Spark • https://amzn.to/3v2eLbn
Holden Karau, Konwinski, Wendell & Zaharia • Learning Spark • https://amzn.to/397e2NE
Holden Karau & Krishna Sankar • Fast Data Processing with Spark 2nd Edition • https://amzn.to/3xKhXKu
Holden Karau • Fast Data Processing with Spark 1st Edition • https://amzn.to/3rHQgOu
Bluesky
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This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.
https://gotopia.tech

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/412

Andrew Lamb - Staff Engineer at InfluxData, ASF Member & PMC Apache DataFusion & Apache Arrow
Olimpiu Pop - Technologist & Tech Journalist

RESOURCES
Andrew
https://bsky.app/profile/andrewlamb1111.bsky.social
https://x.com/andrewlamb1111
https://github.com/alamb
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewalamb
https://andrew.nerdnetworks.org

Olimpiu
https://x.com/olimpiupop
https://github.com/zroll
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olimpiupop

Links
https://www.influxdata.com/blog/flight-datafusion-arrow-parquet-fdap-architecture-influxdb
https://www.cidrdb.org/cidr2005/papers/P19.pdf

DESCRIPTION
Olimpiu Pop speaks with Andrew Lamb, staff engineer at InfluxData and PMC member of Apache DataFusion and Apache Arrow, about how modern data systems are built using standardized open source components rather than being developed from scratch.

Andrew discusses the FDAP Stack (Flight, DataFusion, Arrow & Parquet), the shift from row-based to columnar data storage, and how technologies like Apache Iceberg are enabling a new era of interoperability across data platforms. The discussion covers why this modular approach saves years of development time while providing better performance and compatibility.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Kasun Indrasiri & Danesh Kuruppu • gRPC: Up and Running • https://amzn.to/3sBGBJJ
Tomer Shiran, Jason Hughes & Alex Merced • Apache Iceberg: The Definitive Guide • https://amzn.to/488Z30k
William Smith • Arrow Flight Protocols and Practices • https://amzn.to/4o2Q2fd
Matthew Topol • In-Memory Analytics with Apache Arrow • https://amzn.to/4oJQ6BM
Apache Parquet A Complete Guide • https://amzn.to/4i7HVN6
Bluesky
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Looking for a unique learning experience?
Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.tech

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.
http://gotopia.tech/bookclub

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/episodes/411

Daniel Kusswurm - SW Developer, Computer Scientist & Author of "Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming" & many more books
Matt Godbolt - Low-level Latency Geek & Creator of Compiler Explorer

RESOURCES
Matt
https://bsky.app/profile/matt.godbolt.org
https://xania.org
https://github.com/mattgodbolt
https://www.linkedin.com/in/godbolt
https://twitter.com/mattgodbolt
https://godbolt.org

Links
https://link.springer.com
https://youtu.be/L2Qu9rk05rE
https://youtu.be/-HNpim5x-IE
https://youtu.be/hgcNM-6wr34

DESCRIPTION
Matt Godbolt, creator of Compiler Explorer, interviews Daniel Kusswurm, author of "Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming", about the enduring relevance of assembly language in modern software development. They explore what SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) is and why it enables dramatic performance improvements for specific computational tasks, discuss when assembly language programming is justified versus using compiler intrinsics, and examine the challenges of writing vectorized algorithms. Dan shares insights from his career optimizing image analysis software and explains how understanding low-level architecture can improve code quality even when writing in higher-level languages.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Daniel Kusswurm • Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming v3 • https://amzn.to/44hIVZf
Daniel Kusswurm • Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming v2 • https://amzn.to/3LJlMIZ
Daniel Kusswurm • Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming v1 • https://amzn.to/43DPANj
Daniel Kusswurm • Modern Arm Assembly Language Programming • https://amzn.to/4rbyH6M
Daniel Kusswurm • Practical C++ STL Programming • https://amzn.to/4ickAdq
Daniel Kusswurm • Modern Parallel Programming with C++ and Assembly Language • https://amzn.to/4o5J3SF
Bluesky
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