GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded for GOTO State of the Art in January 2026.
https://gotopia.tech

Read the full transcription of this interview here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/423

Dr. Ewelina Kurtys - Strategic Advisor on Frontier Technologies at FinalSpark
Charles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & Consultant

RESOURCES
Ewelina
https://x.com/ewelina_kurtys
https://github.com/ewelinaewela
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewelinakurtys
https://www.ewelinakurtys.com

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

Links
https://finalspark.com
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/biologically-inspired-computing-dr-ewelina-kurtys-udnhe
https://finalspark.com/finalspark-6-month-research-technology-update
https://finalspark.com/first-publication-from-a-neuroplatform-user

DESCRIPTION
Dr. Ewelina Kurtys, Strategy Advisor at FinalSpark, discusses the revolutionary potential of biological computing with host Charles Humble.

The conversation explores FinalSpark's ambitious goal to build computers using living neurons that are 1 million times more energy efficient than current digital systems. Ewelina explains the technical challenges of working with brain organoids, the ethical considerations of using human stem cells, and why biological neurons could dramatically reduce AI costs while offering unique advantages for complex tasks like generative AI.
The interview covers everything from neural encoding and plasticity to consciousness and the deterministic nature of the brain.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Robert M. Sapolsk • Determined • https://amzn.to/4akv2gi
Jin Xu • Biological Computing • https://amzn.to/4a4Wwp9
Bluesky
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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/424

Susanne Kaiser - Independent Tech Consultant & Author of "Architecture for Flow"
James Lewis - Software Architect & Director at Thoughtworks

RESOURCES
Susanne
https://bsky.app/profile/suksr.bsky.social
https://mastodon.social/@suksr
https://twitter.com/suksr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannekaiser1
https://susannekaiser.net

James
https://bsky.app/profile/boicy.bovon.org
https://twitter.com/boicy
https://linkedin.com/in/james-lewis-microservices
https://github.com/boicy
https://www.bovon.org

Links
https://susannekaiser.net/the-architecture-for-flow-canvas
https://susannekaiser.net/articles
https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done

DESCRIPTION
James Lewis interviews Susanne Kaiser about her comprehensive new book "Architecture for Flow: Adaptive Systems with Domain-Driven Design, Wardley Mapping and Team Topologies".

Susanne shares how she brought together 3 powerful frameworks over several years of her consulting work, creating a holistic approach to designing socio-technical systems. The discussion covers her journey from startup CTO to independent consultant, the evolution of her thinking around value streams and team organization, and her practical "Architecture for Flow Canvas" that teams can use to assess their current state and envision their future.

With 126 hand-drawn illustrations and 599 sticky notes in the book, Kaiser emphasizes the importance of visual communication and starting with the problem space before jumping to solutions.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Susanne Kaiser • Adaptive Systems With Domain-Driven Design, Wardley Mapping & Team Topologies • https://amzn.to/3XTmNCc
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team Topologies • https://amzn.to/4a2gh0i
Woods, Erder & Pureur • Continuous Architecture in Practice • https://amzn.to/2QWAmkl
Steve Pereira & Andrew Davis • Flow Engineering • https://amzn.to/3GY3u44
Stefan Hofer & Henning Schwentner • Domain Storytelling • https://amzn.to/3EroBH7
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This interview was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2025.
https://gotocph.com

Abby Bangser - Platform Engineering Insights from Syntasso delivering Kratix
Adrian Mouat - Developer Relations at Chainguard & Author of 'Using Docker'
Holly Cummins - JavaOne Rock Star. Building Quarkus to Make the Cloud Cloudier

RESOURCES
Abby
https://bsky.app/profile/abangser.bsky.social
https://twitter.com/a_bangser
https://github.com/abangser
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbybangser
https://www.syntasso.io/members-area/abby/profile

Adrian
https://bsky.app/profile/adrianmouat.com
https://twitter.com/adrianmouat
https://github.com/amouat
https://linkedin.com/in/adrianmouat
http://www.adrianmouat.com

Holly
https://hollycummins.com
https://hollycummins.com/type/blog
https://bsky.app/profile/hollycummins.com
https://hachyderm.io/@holly_cummins
https://twitter.com/holly_cummins
https://github.com/holly-cummins
https://linkedin.com/in/holly-k-cummins

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Adrian Mouat • Using Docker • https://amzn.to/3PEYIJL
Liz Rice • Container Security • https://amzn.to/3oU4iJe
Liz Rice • Kubernetes Security • https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/kubernetes-security/9781492039075
Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu, & Sara Bergman • Building Green Software • https://amzn.to/3UjSClv
Kief Morris • Infrastructure as Code • https://amzn.to/4e6EBQc
Bluesky
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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/422

Fabrice Bernhard - Co-Author of “The Lean Tech Manifesto” & Co-Founder & CTO at Theodo
Steve Pereira - C o-Author of “Flow Engineering” & Principal Consultant at Visible Flow Consulting

RESOURCES
Fabrice
https://bsky.app/profile/fab-ber.bsky.social
https://x.com/fabriceb
https://github.com/fabriceb
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricebernhard

Steve
https://x.com/steveelsewhere
https://github.com/stevepereira
https://www.linkedin.com/in/devopsto
https://stevepereira.ca

Links
https://hbr.org/1986/01/the-new-new-product-development-game

DESCRIPTION
Fabrice Bernhard, co-founder of Theodo and co-author of "The Lean Tech Manifesto", shares his journey from agile practitioner to lean thinking advocate. The discussion explores how lean principles can scale agile practices beyond small teams, the misconceptions around both methodologies, and the emergence of tech-enabled networks of teams as a new organizational model.

Fabrice emphasizes that both lean and agile are fundamentally about people, not processes, and shares practical lessons from scaling his consultancy to 700 people while maintaining agility through lean principles.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Fabrice Bernhard & Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle • The Lean Tech Manifesto • https://amzn.to/3Z4EbU6
Steve Pereira & Andrew Davis • Flow Engineering • https://amzn.to/3GY3u44
General Stanley McChrystal, Collins, Silverman & Fussell • Team of Teams • https://amzn.to/4bUzhQY
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team Topologies • https://amzn.to/4a2gh0i
Bill Frasure, Bruce Eckel, James Ward • Effect Oriented Programming • https://amzn.to/4sO6wLV
Susanne Kaiser • Adaptive Systems With Domain-Driven Design, Wardley Mapping & Team Topologies • https://amzn.to/3XTmNCc
Bluesky
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LinkedIn
Facebook

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Looking for a unique learning experience?
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This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.
https://gotopia.tech

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/421

Félix GV - Current Interests: Multi-Planetary Databases, Data Sovereignty & Lifelogging
Olimpiu Pop - Technologist & Tech Journalist

RESOURCES
Félix
https://bsky.app/profile/felixgv.ninja
https://github.com/FelixGV
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixgv

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

Links
https://venicedb.org
https://github.com/linkedin/venice
https://rocksdb.org
https://duckdb.org

DESCRIPTION
Félix GV, a former engineer at LinkedIn and architect of the Venice database system, discusses the complexity of building planetary-scale data systems. He explains Venice's unbundled architecture where each component—from Kafka-based pub/sub to RocksDB-powered servers—operates as an independent distributed system. Félix details their rigorous chaos engineering practices, including regular load tests that push data centers beyond normal capacity to ensure reliability.

The discussion covers fundamental distributed systems concepts like the CAP theorem and the trade-offs between consistency and availability in multi-region deployments. He also explains why Venice, as a derived data system, deliberately sacrifices strong consistency for high throughput and availability, and concludes by discussing their experimental integration of DuckDB for SQL-based analytics and data exploration capabilities.

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
Adi Polak • Scaling Machine Learning with Spark • https://amzn.to/3N9vx1H
Mark Needham, Michael Hunger & Michael Simons • DuckDB in Action • https://amzn.to/45QwSli
Simon Aubury & Ned Letcher • Getting Started with DuckDB • https://amzn.to/3VPk4q
Bluesky
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