— ooks · Frank Shines & Umer Qureshi
Twenty-five years of writing about systems, intelligence, and what makes the work stick.
From a Wiley accounting reference to a visual guide that connects the cave wall to the neural net — the same throughline runs through all of it: master the pattern, and the technology stops being scary.
— The new one · 2025
AI or Die
The Caveman’s Visual Guide to AI for Everyone
AI or Die connects our ancient past to our AI future. If our ancestors could read the stars to survive, we can master AI to thrive. From an Air Force student pilot working in an AI lab to helping a daughter with her math homework, the discovery is the same: making AI accessible isn’t about complex formulas — it’s about visual thinking and pattern recognition.
Foreword by four-time Olympian Reina-Flor Okori.
AI or Die
The Caveman’s Visual Guide to AI for Everyone
Frank Shines & Umer Qureshi
— The Library
Four books, one obsession.
How smart systems — and the people who run them — actually create value.
2025 · Analytics AIML
AI or Die
The Caveman’s Visual Guide to AI for Everyone. Pattern recognition and visual thinking as the on-ramp to AI fluency — for everyone, not just engineers.
Frank Shines & Umer Qureshi
2020 · Self-published
Let in But Left Out
Leadership, faith, and knowledge in the age of AI, coronavirus, and fake news. Memoir meets socio-political critique — how to lead and stay whole through systemic disruption. Foreword by Michelle Shines and Umer Qureshi.
Frank Shines
2007
New Science of Success
How to outsource-proof your job and prosper in a Web 2.0 economy. The tactical playbook for staying valuable when the ground keeps shifting — a thesis that reads as prophecy in the AI era.
Frank Shines
2000 · John Wiley & Sons
The Controller’s Function
The work of the managerial accountant — Performance Measurement section, 2nd Edition. The Wiley reference where the discipline started: measure the right thing, or measure nothing at all.
Frank Shines
— The authors
Practitioners who write.
Frank “Rio” Shines spent three decades inside IBM, Ernst & Young, and the Fortune 500, flew Air Force jets, and holds a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Umer Qureshi leads the firm’s technology and analytics practice. They write the way they build — problem and people first, then technology.
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Excerpts, launches, and the occasional contrarian essay. No spam.
— Forthcoming
In the workshop.
Book · in progress
Slave House to White House
The Stroud family chronicle — from a great-grandfather born into slavery in Texas to descendants who touched the Apollo missions, Olympic trials, and the literary record. Heritage as a study in resilience and ingenuity.
Stage & screen · in production
RACE, the Opera · Running to Harvard
An opera and a documentary on identity, excellence, and the long climb — the same themes that run through the books, told in motion and music.
— Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
About the books.
Do I need a technical background to read AI or Die?
No. The whole premise is that pattern recognition and visual thinking — not formulas — are the way in. It’s written for everyone.
Are these available for bulk or team orders?
Yes. For workshops, training cohorts, or institutional orders, reach out and we’ll arrange it.
What connects an accounting book to an AI book?
One idea: measure and master the right pattern. The Controller’s Function was about performance measurement; AI or Die is about reading intelligence itself. Same discipline, new frontier.
When is Slave House to White House out?
It’s in progress. Subscribe above and you’ll be among the first to know.
— From the page to the P&L
Like the thinking? Put it to work.
The books make the case. The AIM Suite ships the result.