We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.
A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think
Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.
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The countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China were deemed by Goldman Sachs to be at a similar stage of development in 2001
Forget BRIC. It's all about RGM, which stands for Rapid Growth Markets. It's a new acronym that represents 25 key market areas that business leaders should be paying attention to. Ernst & Young compiled a report earlier this year that identified the "top 25 ‘rapid-growth markets’ or RGMs [that ...
What is the Big Idea? Samir N. Kapadia's career in Washington D. C. seemed routine in comparison to the exciting jobs his friends had in India, a surging nation in the global economy. "I’d sit there on Facebook and on the phone and hear about them starting all these companies and doing all ...
What is the Big Idea? Jim Yong Kim, a global health expert and the president of Dartmouth College was named as the next president of the World Bank, according to The New York Times . Dr. Kim, 52, will take over on July 1 after the current president, Robert B. Zoellick, steps down at the end of ...
What is the Big Idea? Leaders from many western hemisphere countries gathered for the Summit of the Americas meeting this weekend to discuss alternatives to the failed "war on drugs." President Obama immediately rejected the legalization of drugs as an option, according to The New York Times. ...
What is the Big Idea? Chinese authorities have shuttered the 42 websites and more than 210,000 posts about a major political scandal rocked the country, Agence France Presse reported. A three-line announcement on the official Xinhua news agency came as Chinese authorities ramped up efforts to ...
What is the Big Idea? Russia's lame duck president Dmitry Medvedev is working hard during the last two months of his presidential term. He met with a team of experts last month to talk about Russia’s Open Government initiative which is aimed at fighting corruption, according to the Telegraph. ...
What is the Big Idea? Foxconn's employees in China may be getting a raise, but it's only a matter of time before higher wages prompts the manufacturer to move its operations to a cheaper Asian country, according to a report by the Global Post . “It’s just cost efficiencies. Like any other ...
What is the Big Idea? An intern in a hospital in Harbin city was stabbed to death by an angry patient last week. Three other doctors were seriously injured in the attack. These latest victims join a list of at least ten other medical professionals in China who were murdered last year by ...
What is the Big Idea? Felipe Leonard moved to Brazil from Argentina two years ago. He didn't speak the language and knew very little about the Brazilian market, but he managed to find a job as a general manager for a firm called Group Gamma. “This country really intrigued me,” he told ...
What is the Big Idea? The slums of Sangli, a city in southwestern India, is nothing more than a patch of blank space on a map. But thanks to Google Earth images, new information about these forgotten dwellings have emerged, according to Le Monde. Distinct borders and other identifying ...
What is the Big Idea? Earlier this month, 20-year-old student Tsering Kyi emerged from a public restroom at a produce market in Tibet, soaked in gasoline and with a defiant fist in the air, lit herself on fire. She was protesting a policy change at Maqu County Tibetan Middle School, in Gansu ...
What is the Big Idea? It’s late May and the year is 1989. Among the chaos in Tiananmen Square is 20-year-old David Tian, who is one of millions bravely chanting for political and economic reform from a corrupt and oppressive government. Tian narrowly escapes the worst of this event by hopping ...
News of ongoing economic uncertainty surrounds us. In delivering his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress recently in Washington, U.S. Chairman Ben Bernanke urged drastic reduction in the government’s long-term deficit. "The United States is on an unsustainable fiscal path looking out ...
For those of you who missed last night's debate on China vs. American capitalism hosted by Intelligence Squared U.S., here is the video. There was one decided winner with 85 percent of the audience's votes, but we won't spoil the surprise. Check out the video here: Robert Rosenkranz, CEO ...
It may be a day dedicated to love. But for Xi Jinpin, China’s presidential heir apparent, it is a day dedicated entirely to business...and basketball. Trade deficits, currency devaluations and human rights issues are the topics dominating the dialogue between President Obama and Xi Jinpin ...