Have We Taken Agile Too Far?

Agile is a highly effective tool for product development, especially software-driven offerings. But as companies expand its use into new areas (budgeting, talent management), agile is too often used an excuse to avoid careful planning and preparation. Instead of taking time for the careful thinking a breakthrough product requires, teams get locked into the process of two-weeks sprints, thinking in bite-sized chunks based on the resources that they already have. Amazon takes a different approach, which it calls “working backwards.” It requires a fully realized vision of a proposed product, embodied in a written press release and an FAQ that explains to colleagues, customers, and senior management how Amazon could create this wonderful offering at an affordable yet profitable price. Only when company executives were satisfied with these documents can teams start writing code and actually assembling the product.

The Dawn of Wireless Electricity Is Finally Upon Us. Here’s How New Zealand Will Do It.

Picture the street outside your home. Now erase the power lines. Imagine interstate highways without the unsightly cable towers that dot the expansive United States landscape. This could be the wireless future of energy if a partnership between New Zealand’s government and a startup called Emrod works out—and it all dates back to the wildest dreams of Nikola Tesla.

Your Face: A Window Into Your Health

It’s been said that the eyes are a window to the soul. Your face is also a window—by looking closely at your facial features, you can read details of your own health. Sometimes looking into the mirror may show something surprising, even unsettling. But how can you know whether a facial change is cause for concern or something harmless?

‘SQ117 owes me a glass of fresh milk’: The Singapore Airlines hijacking, 30 years on

SINGAPORE: Past 9pm on Mar 26, 1991 – 30 years ago to the day – three men were in various stages of winding down their evening.

Maybank manager Ong Cheng Sng had just settled into his aisle seat on Singapore Airlines flight 117 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Mr Ong, who was 44 at the time, had had a long day and had barely made it for his flight, but he was now looking forward to a glass of milk from the galley and finally getting home.

Study of 1.6 million people looks at the effects of income on our emotional well-being

They say money can’t buy you happiness — but it appears that making more of it makes you feel much better about yourself. 

A new study published in the American Psychological Association journal Emotion looks at how a person’s income influences their “self-regard emotions,” aka their pride, confidence, shame, etc. 

Toothbrushes Might Not Be Covered in Poo After All

If you’ve worried that your toothbrush, being usually in the same room as your toilet, is perpetually covered in microscopic fecal matter, well, here’s some relief. According to a new study, our brushes are full of bacteria found in our mouths, but they’re not full of bacteria from our guts. In other words, our toothbrushes don’t seem to be nearly as disgusting as many of us feared.