"Path based" approach for IT development

Interesting piece here at HBR from Staats and Upton about what they call a "path based" approach to IT system development:

Through our work, we have identified an approach that not only reduces a company’s costs but supports the growth of existing businesses and the launch of new ones. We call it a “path based” approach, because rather than attempting to define all of the specifications for a system before the project is launched, companies focus on providing a path for the system to be developed over time. The approach’s premises are that it is difficult and costly to map out all requirements before a project starts because people often cannot specify everything they’ll need beforehand. Also, unanticipated needs almost always arise once a system is in operation. And persuading people to use and “own” the system after it is up and running is much easier said than done.

The risk of neuroscience degenrating into phrenology

Interesting article here from Perspectives on Psychological Science, by Edward Vul, Christine Harris, Piotr Winkielman, & Harold Pashler (h/t New Scientist).

Basically, a lot of the very strong correlations that fMRI scans are showing between parts of the brain "lighting up" and emotions felt by subjects, are likely to be spurious. This article claims that the experimenters are making some basic statistical mistakes and are over-stating the links they see. To quote the abstract:

We show how this nonindependent analysis inflates correlations while yielding reassuring-looking scattergrams.