Scott J. Pearson

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

By Scott J. Pearson | December 23, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Tom DeMarco and Tim ListerCopyright (c) 2013 This book is one of the few focused specifically on how to manage projects and teams of knowledge-workers. It teaches the reader how management might retain workers and their essential skills instead of treating them like cattle. It treats the central problem of management is sociology and not technology. Keeping knowledge-workers happy and productive requires humanity and not scorched-earth policies. The book, in its third edition, is organized…

Fiction-Stories

The House of the Seven Gables

By Scott J. Pearson | December 23, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Nathaniel HawthorneWritten 1851 Hawthorne wrote this book in the warm aura of his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. This book dwells on the theme of whether a Puritan history – replete with its sad stories like the Salem Witch Trials – will haunt the New England culture forever or whether New England can overcome such sad austerity. The hope for the future lies in the characters of Phoebe and Hargrove, who end up getting married…

The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

By Scott J. Pearson | December 18, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Camille FournierCopyright (c) 2017 My path to software was not traditional. I always did well at mathematics in school, but I liked many things that weren’t technical – journalism, religion, poetry, and medicine all pulled my strings at some time. I have ended up producing software used in medical research. As such, I figured that I needed to study the traditional career path in software/technology to try to meld my diverse skill-set with more…

Fiction-Stories Religion-Philosophy

The Scarlet Letter

By Scott J. Pearson | December 16, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Nathaniel HawthorneWritten 1850. I originally read this book in high school. I reread it now, with two more decades of life experience. I’ve lived among Christians who revere the Puritan era. I’ve experienced social shunning. I’m a male living in the #MeToo era where one sin of sexual harassment can lead to career demise. In all of these situations, however, I side with Hawthorne’s sympathies towards those who bear the brunt of social shunning.…

Books Software-Technology

Resources to Explore: Software

By Scott J. Pearson | December 12, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre

Biography-Memoir History

Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton

By Scott J. Pearson | December 11, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Tilar J. MazzeoCopyright (c) 2018 Like many, I fell in love with the protagonist of Broadway’s biggest hit in recent years Hamilton. The true protagonist of that story is not Alexander Hamilton but his wife Eliza Hamilton. Her life as one of our country’s founding mothers brings accolades that stack up well alongside her husband’s. She bore seven children. Mindful of her husband’s past and her children’s present, she helped found the country’s first…

Biography-Memoir Family Religion-Philosophy

Let Her Fly: A Father’s Journey

By Scott J. Pearson | December 9, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Ziauddin Yousafzai (father of Malala)Copyright (c) 2018 Malala, Ziauddin’s daughter, is an awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating for girls’ education. She paid for this cause by being shot in the face by the Taliban. Her father, living in the midst of a highly patriarchal culture, sought to lead his family in an egalitarian manner while running a school for girls in Pakistan. Malala’s story has been well-told in her best-selling book…

Management-Business

The First-Time Manager

By Scott J. Pearson | December 7, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Loren B. Belker, Jim McCorkmick, and Gary S. TopchikCopyright (c) 2012Audiobook I am not a first-time manager. I am not even a manager. Nonetheless, studying the field of management can give me insight into my work. It can help me work better with the managers around me, and it can help me carry my load as a manage my projects in tandem with the people around me. This book consists of tips and insights…

Writing-Communication

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method

By Scott J. Pearson | December 6, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Gerald M. WeinbergCopyright (c) 2011 Gerry Weinberg has a PhD in communications and has written around 60 books on various topics, mostly having to do with computer programming. As a glorified computer programmer and an aspiring writer, this Weinberg book on his methodology for writing seems appealing. His basic take runs through writing from the heart. He uses the analogy for nineteen of twenty chapters in this book of craftsperson building a wall with…

Fiction-Stories

Jane Eyre

By Scott J. Pearson | December 3, 2018 by Scott J. Pearson

by Charlotte BronteFirst published 1847. Jane Eyre was and is a classic of the English language. Originally published part-way through the Victorian era, this book tells a story of a woman who lost her parents to an early death and was raised and educated in an orphan’s asylum. (It is important to note that this was before the rise of the welfare state in Britain and before public education was recognized as a right.) Her…