Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Last Father-Daughter Dance: A Short Story

By Scott J. Pearson | December 19, 2025December 19, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Kalista is a medal-winning runner training for her third Olympics when she discovers that her father is dying. She and her fiancé/business partner are in the middle of building a business, but amidst all the distractions, she realizes that her father deserves her attention most. In so doing, she rekindles childhood memories and reassesses what she values in life. As a short story, the script ends with most of those storylines still open and unresolved,…

Mastering JIRA for Agile Projects: A Practical Guide with Real-World Examples (Confluence Included)

By Scott J. Pearson | December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Jira is becoming a leading tool for project management at larger businesses, and using it is a skill required for many jobs. This book teaches you how to master Jira processes to manage projects under Agile or Scrum paradigms. Half of this book focuses on Confluence software, which my workplace does not use. Therefore, half of the book was irrelevant to me. However, the Jira sections gave me a formal training that I lacked. It…

Artificial Intelligence

A Simple Guide to Retrieval Augmented Generation

By Scott J. Pearson | December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a process in artificial intelligence (AI) where specific documents can be consulted to provide an answer. It provides a way for individual groups to customize a bot for their internal uses. For example, a company can provide business policies specific to their own organization. Or healthcare firms can provide literature up to date with their own fields, not just the latest AI build of the foundation model. Frankly, this topic confused…

Artificial Intelligence Indie

The Complete Guide to Microsoft Agent Framework: Build, Test & Manage AI Agents that Integrate Seamlessly with Azure, M365 & Business APIs

By Scott J. Pearson | December 17, 2025December 17, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

This book seeks to teach readers how to write Python or .NET code to perform certain tasks as Agents within Microsoft’s AI platform. Unfortunately, it’s heavy on code and light on concepts. I wish it’d teach more about how to integrate with Azure’s web interface instead of the command line alone. It does succeed at showing many examples of how to code agents, but it lacks a deep conceptual explanation of how agents integrate with…

Artificial Intelligence Indie

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) & Vector Databases: A Practical Guide for AI Developers

By Scott J. Pearson | December 17, 2025December 17, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is how artificial intelligence prioritizes facts in a given domain over and above all the information the basic, foundational model offers. It allows businesses, scientists, and others to prioritize their custom knowledge instead of making up answers. It’s an extremely powerful tool that most AI users don’t understand. This book tries to explain the basics of a RAG system in Python code. Unfortunately, despite a grasp on the basics of RAG, it…

Healthcare Research-Education

The National Institutes of Health: 1991-2008

By Scott J. Pearson | December 14, 2025December 14, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

To those interested in healthcare research in America, understanding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) represents a formidable challenge. Few books address the topic well, and most investigators follow the NIH’s trends with deep interest. Even though this book represents history from decades ago – 15 years is a long time in American politics and in research – this book remains relevant to understand the historical trends still operative in this great institution. Reading this…

Poetry Science

The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry

By Scott J. Pearson | December 13, 2025December 13, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Poetry and science are often placed opposite each other because they describe different things. One describes the human soul; the other describes nature. That’s unfortunate because they can complement each other vividly. The natural world and the vast universe are sources of unending wonder. It’s a shame that too many people are put off by science as intimidating. In truth, it’s awe-inducing and humbling. Maria Popova brings these lessons to life with 15 poems by…

Artificial Intelligence

Prompt Engineering for Generative AI: Future-Proof Inputs for Reliable AI Outputs

By Scott J. Pearson | December 13, 2025December 13, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Prompt engineering is the art and science of finding the right words to generate the right responses from artificial intelligence (AI). It’s becoming a skill in-demand in today’s workplaces. It’s also becoming an essential skill for life. To understand prompt engineering, you must understand how AI tools understand their inputs. This book explains that to you in many forms. It covers prompting as it intersects all the major AI disciplines, like general prompts (as in…

Indie Program Management Software-Technology

The Technical Program Manager Guide: Navigating the Path to Success

By Scott J. Pearson | December 6, 2025December 6, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Traditional program management consists of guiding a suite of programs for business success. As IT has recently become ascendant in the marketplace, that paradigm has applied to software in a role called the technical program manager. Leading tech companies, like Meta, Apple, and Amazon, have made ample use of this position in their business strategy. The problem is that there is no set career progression into this role. Arpit Agrawal tries to demystify this role…

Fiction-Stories

When the Cranes Fly South: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | December 6, 2025December 6, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Some people adore books that leave them with a warm feeling, but I adore books that leave me with tears streaming on my face. This book is one of the latter. Originally a bestseller in Sweden, it’s now translated into English (and other languages) for the world to contemplate. In the story, Bo is facing aging as his own body is breaking down. His wife is in long-term care with dementia, unable to recognize even…