Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Managing Technical Debt: Reducing Friction in Software Development

By Scott J. Pearson | February 28, 2020August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

In software development, technical debt is understood as something in software design that slowly reduces the speed of development. To mix metaphors, technical debt causes friction in the development process. Over time, work arounds cause “interest” to accrue on the principal of bad design. The business and software development are negatively impacted, and eventually a “tipping point” is reached. Then a plan is made to pay down some (but usually not all) of the technical…

Poetry

Collected Poems: 1909 – 1962 by T.S. Eliot

By Scott J. Pearson | February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

T.S. Eliot surely resides in history as one of the greatest twentieth-century poets in the English language. He spanned the American-English landscape in life as well as in literature. His poetry is replete with imagery yet relatively devoid of obvious meaning. Even a poem entitled “Ash Wednesday” (a seemingly religious topic) skirts on just conjuring a sense of beauty in the reader and avoiding a tone traditionally reminiscent of a church. Of course, one poem…

Technology: Critical History of a Concept

By Scott J. Pearson | February 22, 2020February 23, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

As commonly told, science rose in the public’s consciousness during the Renaissance. However, the word “technology” in the English language was not used then. Instead, “technology” was used more and more frequently after the 1950s. What does this word exactly mean and what does it tell about our society that we use it so much today? Schatzberg, a professor in one of the premier schools of technology in the world, asks these questions with us…

Psychology

Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance

By Scott J. Pearson | February 21, 2020February 23, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Seemingly, everybody has their own version of secrets of success. Angela Duckworth shares that and more in her psychological theory of achievement; only hers is backed by research study. She terms the common factor in success as “grit.” In this work, she shares a way of quantifying grit (called the Grit Scale) methods to develop it in people. At the outset, she seeks to overthrow the idea that some people are just naturally more talented…

Indie Software-Technology

The Node.js Handbook by Flavio Copes

By Scott J. Pearson | February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This book is written by Flavio Copes, an Italian computer-science writer who maintains his own blog (linked below). He has written many blog posts in English about relevant topics of interest to software developers. He seems to have transformed many of these blog posts into books and has independently published these. Some of these books are even freely downloadable with the sole cost of signing up for a free email list. Overall, though presumably more…

Books Personal Essays

Why Read? An Essay

By Scott J. Pearson | February 17, 2020February 16, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Twenty years ago, I thought that the Internet would dramatically change – even enhance – the way we humans communicate. After all, this is how Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized civilizations in the sixteenth century. Ten years ago, when Kindles, tablets, and smart phones hit the market, I thought digitized word would replace the written word. These early predictions have proved true in one sense but untrue in another. They have indeed changed the way humans…

Fiction-Stories Healthcare

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

By Scott J. Pearson | February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This brilliant work, published in 1920s America and winner of a Pulitzer Prize, addresses the state of medical research shortly after the Flexner Report famously shone a path for medical research to progress. It sets forth the classical view of a medical researcher – isolated, dedicated to his research, not interested in people, and essentially living in his lab. And yes, that view is traditionally centered around a researcher being a male in a more-or-less…

Society Software-Technology

The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World

By Scott J. Pearson | February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Technology – especially social media – has made our communication more accessible over the last ten years. But has it enhanced the quality of our conversation? In this book, Phillips contends that empathy has lost out in the transition to digital technology. She cites events like the 2016 US election as proof of how we are unable to have a civilized conversation in the digital world. Thus far (in the first couple chapters in the…

Economics

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

By Scott J. Pearson | February 11, 2020February 11, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This book was written shortly before Barack Obama’s election as U.S. President. Notably, that time was also just before the Great Recession. In that light, this book seems to suggest an ending to the deep conflicts between the world-views of conservative and liberal Baby Boomers and an opening to some sort of resolution of their tensions. It attempts to paint a middle way between economic conservatives (libertarians) and economic liberals (paternalists), a way called “libertarian…

History Poetry

Beowulf

By Scott J. Pearson | February 9, 2020February 9, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Like many, I have not touched this work since my class on British Literature in high school. I have learned a lot since then, and my capacity for processing great literature has only increased. This book, perhaps the first great work in the English language (Old English, that is), has remained the same. Today, I read it in one afternoon and loved every minute of it. Raffel’s translation brings out the drama of the tale…