Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Brag, Worry, Wonder, Bet: A Manager’s Guide to Giving Feedback

By Scott J. Pearson | September 13, 2023September 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Regular performance reviews are part-and-parcel of just about every managed venture. They mark successes of direct reports while charting next steps towards a future path. Unfortunately, these reviews can sometime turn into routine affairs. In this case, feedback is not always useful; worse is when it doesn’t even strike a chord but instead discourages the employee. In this short book, business professor Steve King suggests a simple method to improve conversations in performance reviews. As…

Management-Business

The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future & Lead the Way to Change

By Scott J. Pearson | September 10, 2023September 10, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Feedback comprises a crucial part of leading people under you. Your feedback to them and their feedback to you provide a means to improve. Yet with how it’s conducted in many places, feedback in the form of reviews and grades can induce more anxiety than improvement. Giving effective feedback and receiving effective feedback are separate but vital skills. In this book, Joe Hirsch seeks to make feedback from managers and teachers more effective by unlocking…

Biography-Memoir

The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898-1939

By Scott J. Pearson | September 9, 2023September 9, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Paul Robeson was one of the most dynamic characters in the twentieth century, but is often forgotten today. A pastor’s son, he grew to be a unanimous All-American defensive end at Rutgers, an award-winning scholar, a law student, a stage actor, a musical artist, a polyglot, and a film actor – all in the first forty years of his life and all despite a strong culture of racism in his home country. The second half…

Writing-Communication

Old Friend From Far Away: How to Write Memoir

By Scott J. Pearson | September 4, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Natalie Goldberg has become a famous name among modern teachers of writing. In this short audiobook, she focuses on her process of writing memoirs. She talks about the delicate process of writing from memories and bringing out essential details that eventually form a narrative structure. The audiobook, narrated by the author, is incredibly short but power-packed at around 150 minutes. Goldberg’s main mode is to start writing first and then piece it together later. Along…

Presentation Science Writing-Communication

The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed & Critical Errors to Avoid

By Scott J. Pearson | September 3, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Many scientists and engineers first learn to present by watching others present and mimicking these teachers. This technique helps to convey the basics, but how do collective bad habits get rooted out? Indeed, many weaknesses get passed on from mentor to mentee and from lab to lab. Instead of just floating aimlessly with the masses, those who aspire to greatness can benefit from reading critical commentary from scientific communicators like Michael Alley. This book, first…

Writing-Communication

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

By Scott J. Pearson | September 2, 2023September 2, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Natalie Goldberg’s guide for writers seeks to free authors to engage their own minds in writing. Using Zen Buddhism as a template, she describes the practice of writing as similar to meditation in that an author engages her/his own mind. She seeks to free writers from a persistent “inner critic” who chatters doubts, hangups, and insecurities. She labels this the “monkey mind” in contrast to a “creative mind.” As she does in writing seminars, she…

Biography-Memoir

Here I Stand by Paul Robeson

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

In the middle of the twentieth century, Paul Robeson was considered the most well-known American in the world. He was a famous singer, football player, and polymath/scholar who advocated for universal equal rights, especially at home in America. However, during the 1950s, he made a statement supportive of the USSR, and he was blacklisted by the US State Department in the Red Scare. Subsequently, he was denied a passport, essential for an international showman. Eventually,…

Biography-Memoir Leadership Religion-Philosophy

The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife

By Scott J. Pearson | August 29, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Many of us who grew up in conservative evangelical churches bear stark memories of how a culture can entrap people instead of empowering them. One prime way is through gender roles, in a form of patriarchy where only men are allowed leadership roles and a public voice. Decades ago, Shannon Harris married the best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye) and quickly became a silent, unpaid role of a pastor’s wife. In this memoir,…

Biography-Memoir Indie Psychology

Oh, By the Way, I Have a Mental Illness

By Scott J. Pearson | August 27, 2023August 27, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Those newly diagnosed with a mental illness usually face a bleak time. While a diagnosis is infinitely better than uncontrolled mental illness, sources of hope to overcome challenges can be few and far between. Many rightly focus on learning more about their psychological condition. Reestablishing your professional and personal lives, often wrecked by disease, becomes paramount. Some build on this knowledge and transition their career towards specializing in mental illness. However, few published stories are…

History Psychology

Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind

By Scott J. Pearson | August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Kay Redfield Jamison is a well-known psychotherapist at Johns Hopkins who herself famously suffers from bipolar disorder. In 1996, she wrote eloquently about her journey in An Unquiet Mind. In this book, she posits the idea that to be most effective, healers – the doctors, counselors, and leaders – need to be healed themselves. To support her argument, she provides life narratives of many such eminent people, with a focus on the early-to-mid twentieth century.…