Adaptability, Google, and MCP with Jonathan Amsterdam

Ardan Labs Podcast

Bill Kennedy

Ardanlabs, Golang, Computer Science, Technology, Tech, Kubernetes, Go Time Podcast, Ardan Labs, Docker, Tech Careers, Education, Bill Kennedy, Engineering

5 • 7 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

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Summary

In this episode of the Ardan Labs Podcast, Bill Kennedy interviews Jonathan Amsterdam from the Go team at Google about his journey from academia and finance to software engineering, his work on Go and API design, and the importance of adaptability, community, and building impactful software. 00:00 Introduction 00:30 What is Jonathan Doing Today? 02:00 First Memories of a Computer 09:30 Entering University 14:00 Early Coding / Academics 20:50 Interest in AI / ML 27:00 Career Beginnings...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Art Labs podcast.
0:20.0	Our special guest today is Jonathan, Amsterdam.
0:24.3	Jonathan, thank you so much for wanting to hang out with us this morning and talk about your,
0:30.2	yeah, talk about your journey through your career.
0:33.2	I'm really excited to hear this story.
0:35.2	Give everybody who may not know you, the two-minute spiel on what you're doing today,
0:42.8	but keep it focused on today.
0:46.2	I work on the Go team at Google.
0:50.3	Currently, I'm working on GoalU's Model Context Protocol SDK.
0:58.0	In the past, my notable projects have been slog the structured logging package in the
1:04.6	standard library, HTTP, mucks, enhancements, and various random things, usually with APIs and SDKs.
1:15.1	I'm excited near the end of this to talk about the MCP stuff, because I've been working on the AI stuff for about a year just to learn it, and I'll then be able to teach some of it.
1:27.4	And I'm just not sold on this MCP thing just yet. So it's going to be really... to learn it and then be able to teach some of it.
1:27.7	And I'm just not sold on this MCP thing just yet.
1:30.3	So it's gonna be really interesting to hear your thoughts,
1:33.7	thoughts about it.
1:35.1	This is a show about you and your journey.
1:37.3	So I've gotta sort of throw you into the time machine.
1:42.7	But before we do that, I want you to clear your mind, clear your mind.
1:47.1	Don't think too hard.
1:48.2	I want to hear that first memory that you have of doing something on a computer.
1:54.6	What's that first memory?
	...

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