Scott J. Pearson

Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors & Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms

By Scott J. Pearson | May 6, 2024May 6, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

I liked this book a lot. It’s labeled as a part of a “CIO Series,” but that’s really a mislabel. It’s for anyone working with software developers who has to navigate a distinct company culture. It’s especially geared for those who want to mold that culture for good. Software development is a tricky industry. Good people are hard to find, and they often don’t have a stereotypical personality – especially if they’re really talented. Yet…

Fiction-Stories

Walk the Blue Fields: Stories

By Scott J. Pearson | May 3, 2024May 3, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Claire Keegan’s tightly constructed short stories never cease to enthrall me. This collection poses no exception. Each story takes its own life. They do not take long to read, but oh, they take long to ponder! A couple of these stories are in other collections, but each one provided a treat at the end of a workday. My favorite in this anthology is the last story: “Night of the Quicken Trees.” It tells of two…

Presentation Software-Technology

Now You See It: An Introduction to Visual Data Sensemaking

By Scott J. Pearson | April 28, 2024April 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

We live in an era, the so-called Information Age, where data collection has become incredibly easy. The term “Big Data” gets thrown around casually as computers collect more information on us than we know how to process. Yet wise interpretation of those data is often elusive. We’re overwhelmed with it. Effective visualizations and charts can help us interpret it better, whether to present and persuade or to monitor and manage. Stephen Few, an eloquent minister-turned-data…

Economics Management-Business Society

Thinking in Systems: A Primer

By Scott J. Pearson | April 27, 2024April 27, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Systems thinking is en vogue these days as we increasingly realize how complex the world really is. Too many manage enterprises based on small rules and adages, but neglect to see how the bigger picture works. Then they are surprised when their interventions end up with a different effect. That’s because the rest of the world works systemically through feedback loops. The small game is not the only relevant factor. Before she died, Dartmouth professor…

Healthcare Society

The Spirit Catches You & You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors & the Collision of Two Cultures

By Scott J. Pearson | April 23, 2024April 23, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

In the 1980s, a young Hmong child – whose people fought for the Americans during the Vietnam War – had epilepsy after her parents were relocated to California as refugees. Tragically, her parents never adapted to the American medical system, and equally tragically, the American medical system never adapted to them either. The child Lia Lee’s case resulted in a negative outcome, and the Lee family’s difficulty appears utterly humane upon further investigation. In this…

Indie Management-Business

Beyond the Office Walls: A Practical Guide for Remote Tech Team Excellence

By Scott J. Pearson | April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Remote work has been a trend for a long time as Internet technology inundated homes. Working as a developer in health IT, I have often troubleshot issues from home via my laptop for over a decade. Writing software, I’ve interacted with people all over the globe from my kitchen table or personal office for a long time. The recent COVID pandemic forced the wider workplace to catch up with these trends. As the health threat…

Research-Education

The Craft of Research, 4th Edition

By Scott J. Pearson | April 21, 2024April 27, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The act of research – whether in the natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities – undergirds so much of modern society. The skills help us think and then test those thoughts in light of outside information (data). Without a rigorous set of methods, this act can become mere people pleasing, but with a firm framework, it continues to transform the way the world lives. This book, an educational standard for almost three decades with five…

Leadership Management-Business Software-Technology

Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

By Scott J. Pearson | April 18, 2024September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Engineering management books can sometimes be a bit technical, like the field of engineering itself. Of course, it’s no surprise that engineers often view the task as one of exacting competence – like their work. Yet management can, in truth, be its own thing because it deals with people. Humans pose their own set of challenges, and few can speak authoritatively about both realms. Thus, few good books exist in this domain. Unfortunately, many engineers…

Healthcare Research-Education Writing-Communication

Medical Writing: A Guide for Clinicians, Educators & Researchers

By Scott J. Pearson | April 14, 2024April 14, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Much of academic literature and advancement revolve around biomedical publications. Researchers focus on peer-reviewed publications, but other forms of writing abound: grant proposals, books for healthcare workers, books for the reading public, and journals for healthcare workers. The issues posed by medical writing are relatively common across the entire enterprise. Here, Robert Taylor attempts to distill insights from his writing career into one succinct book. The resulting education can inspire readers, anticipate potential issues, and…

Fiction-Stories

Antarctica by Claire Keegan

By Scott J. Pearson | April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

I have recently fallen in love with Claire Keegan’s short stories! This collection contains her earliest published works. Some of the stories are strange and leave me wondering what the point of such grotesqueness was. More than once, I flipped back through the story to skim it again so that I can understand the action better. Consistently, stories have a twist at the very end that makes each word of an entire meandering piece come…