data science – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise & the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers

By Scott J. Pearson | February 10, 2026February 10, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Organizational silos occur when groups of people in the same organization do not rely on each others’ insights because of various cultural reasons. While the division of labor that silos create is essential for any business, silos can inhibit an organization’s creativity and innovation. They have been weak points in or even downfalls of many great business empires. Through case studies across many organizations and industries, anthropologist Gillian Tett describes negative results silos can create…

AI for Scientific Discovery: Proceedings of a Workshop by the National Academies

By Scott J. Pearson | November 8, 2025November 8, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine guide America’s federal research policies based on identifying challenges in the field. This 2024 workshop looked at opportunities within scientific research for artificial intelligence (AI) to contribute. It was led by national experts discussing use cases in their research and attempted to generalize based on those experiences. Most use cases were from American-based science, but AI in Africa was a recurring theme. Overall, the abundance of unique…

Indie Presentation Visualization

Seeing with Fresh Eyes: Meaning, Space, Data, Truth

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

I read anything that Edward Tufte writes. This “father of data visualization” has taught classes at Yale on the subject for decades. His books have also taught the reading public how to present data more effectively in the digital age. This work represents his fifth book. While his other books focus on getting the data right, this one’s subject meanders around transforming presentations into a form of art that provokes an audience response. I enjoyed…

Software-Technology

Data-Oriented Programming: Reduce Software Complexity

By Scott J. Pearson | July 7, 2024July 7, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Professionally, I write code for web applications in PHP for biomedical use. Thus, data play a central role in my professional life. At first, I tried to design my programs around object-orientated (OO) principles, but soon found that data played a strong role that OO actually restrained. Years later, I found how React divided itself between immutable data, state information, and code. Though I no longer code in React, I find this division still helpful…

Presentation Software-Technology

Now You See It: An Introduction to Visual Data Sensemaking

By Scott J. Pearson | April 28, 2024April 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

We live in an era, the so-called Information Age, where data collection has become incredibly easy. The term “Big Data” gets thrown around casually as computers collect more information on us than we know how to process. Yet wise interpretation of those data is often elusive. We’re overwhelmed with it. Effective visualizations and charts can help us interpret it better, whether to present and persuade or to monitor and manage. Stephen Few, an eloquent minister-turned-data…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Precisely: Working with Precision Systems in a World of Data

By Scott J. Pearson | April 7, 2023March 22, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

In recent years, the world, empowered by computer technologies and advanced data collection, has experienced an explosion of information. Instead of focusing on a few fixed principles, decision-making increasingly takes place in light of ever-changing data points. How are business folk supposed to develop, deploy, and use these systems? In this book, Tumin and Want provide a series of case studies that illustrate how leaders across many domains have accomplished this. They then extract guidelines…

Research-Education

Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook

By Scott J. Pearson | April 15, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Professionally, I work a lot with quantitative data, through mathematics/biostatistics, building software, and research design. The world of words has long been a domain that has enchanted me even though symbols have comprised my main language. Recently, my wife has started graduate work using qualitative methods. I decided to fill my deficits in this world by reading this book. I am by no means expert or even experienced in it, but I merely have an…

Biostatistics Indie Software-Technology

Ultimate Step by Step Guide to Machine Learning Using Python

By Scott J. Pearson | May 4, 2020June 26, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

The conscientious reader should carefully heed the words of this title. The book functions as an introduction to Python that leads, step by step, to using it with Machine Learning. It takes the shortest and easiest path to get there. As such, it provides fairly immediate gratification for the reader. With such low-hanging fruit, its intended audience is beginners without a lot of knowledge in computer science. For that audience, Anis effectively communicates his message.…