Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories & Secrets from Inside Amazon

By Scott J. Pearson | May 9, 2026May 9, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

In over two decades of its existence, Amazon has changed the business landscape. After its founding, many investors made fun of the company for reinvesting its profits – or even running at a loss – so that it could position itself better in the future workplace. Once the home of just bookselling, it has become a powerhouse of logistics, web development, eBooks, and digital devices. The authors, former senior leaders at the company, team together…

The AI-Driven Leader: Harnessing AI to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions

By Scott J. Pearson | April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has immense, obvious power inside, but to many business leaders, the disruptive potentialities scare them. Will they lose their jobs? Will their company lose its place? Is this just another technical fad that will sunset sometime soon? Author Geoff Woods wants readers to say a resounding “no” to all three questions and instead to learn how to harness AI’s power to add strategic value to their leadership. He views AI as a…

Indie Program Management Software-Technology

Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost

By Scott J. Pearson | April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Software projects are notoriously difficult to estimate a time-to-completion, especially in the earliest days of a proposal. Sometimes, simple projects can prove time- and resource-consuming, and seemingly hard projects can complete quickly. Because learning is involved in every project, even good project managers struggle with wildly varying possibilities at first. Author Johanna Rothman offers her advice about what to do with this situation. A few pieces of her advice stand out. First, when estimating, always…

Management-Business Science Software-Technology

Our Future is Biotech

By Scott J. Pearson | April 25, 2026April 25, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

From the title, this book seems like a social pitch to get on the biotech bandwagon. However, its central point doesn’t address social policy or health policy. Rather, it’s a pitch for investors – particularly in Europe – to invest to create a biotech industry on that side of the Atlantic. Andrew Craig points out that the scientific infrastructure is strong, particularly with England’s Oxbridge, but the ability to translate insights and knowledge into companies…

Leadership

A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership

By Scott J. Pearson | April 25, 2026April 25, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Leadership as a CEO is among the most demanding roles in a business environment. Everyone hangs on your every word, for better or for worse, and people are reticent to criticize the leading leader, even when the leader needs desperately to hear critical feedback. The promises of making an impact are great, but so are the opportunities to make a mistake. The authors, senior partners at the McKinsey & Company business research firm, seek to…

Presentation Visualization

Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers & Wonks

By Scott J. Pearson | April 21, 2026April 21, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” or so the old saying goes. When portraying data, its visualization is often worth more than a thousand words. Indeed, in some contexts, it’s the only way that the data are accessible. In this book, Jonathan Schwabish provides a comprehensive look at visual options available to portray data. True to his background as an economist, He provides examples mainly from governmental concerns and social-science fields. As a scientist,…

Religion-Philosophy

The Orthodox Way: Classics Series by Kallistos Ware

By Scott J. Pearson | April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

As a Protestant Christian, I share much theology in common with Eastern Orthodoxy; however, Protestantism’s emphasis lies more with justification than with Trinitarianism and Christology. Eastern Orthodox theology and spirituality tend to ground themselves in the nature of God. In this book, Kallistos Ware shows how the Orthodox maintained the emphasis of the early church’s creeds all the way to the present day. This book is simultaneously faithful to the Eastern Orthodox tradition and open…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules

By Scott J. Pearson | April 18, 2026April 18, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

For decades, the classic project-management challenge has been to produce software quicker with more features and less bugs. Software, however, has its revenge because scheduling it accurately and precisely is a highly inexact science. Even the best, seasoned estimators struggle at first attempt. This book by Steve McConnell, though written 30 years ago, gives communal sympathy towards development teams who can seemingly never meet a deadline. Further, he actually provides some answers on how to…

Fiction-Stories

Peg, Unhinged: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | April 12, 2026April 4, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

As Peg approaches middle age, her life is becoming chaotic. Her subpar husband has decided to leave and seek divorce. Her kids, in late high school and college, are approaching more independence and want little to do with her. A new colleague in her real-estate firm begins stealing her work. All these dynamics compound to bring out the worst in Peg. A drinking habit increases, and she makes the mistake of driving to the store…

Software-Technology

A Philosophy of Software Design

By Scott J. Pearson | April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Writing computer code provides a programmer incredible freedom, but writing good code that’ll work in a team environment is a trickier assignment. Many coders fall back on whatever guidelines their manager issues, but that approach can obscure the real challenge. Not only is someone programming a computer to achieve a certain goal, but that person is simultaneously writing a letter to their future self and fellow programmers about what they are trying to do. Clear…