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.
Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.
Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.
Big Think’s Edge learning platform for career mentorship and professional development provides engaging and actionable courses delivered by the people who are shaping our future.
Managing the effects of the fight-or-flight stress response
What's the Latest Development? Currently being tested at MIT's Media Lab is a system called Inside-Out that, true to its name, allows a person to visualize the emotional ups and down of a typical day. There are three main parts to the system: a biosensor embedded into a wristband, a smartphone ...
What's the Latest Development? Workers looking for a change of pace at lunchtime might want to take advantage of several new midday dance parties popping up at different places around New York and other major cities. Food takes a distant back seat to music at Lunch Break, a free event sponsored ...
What's the Latest Development? Last year, as a challenge to get more children to play outdoors, the UK-based conservation charity National Trust released a list titled "The 50 Things To Do Before You're 11¾," which included tasks ranging from "throw some snow" to "light a fire without matches ...
What's the Big Idea? In the U.S., the weekends sandwiching the 4th of July are the most popular travel time of the year. The cherries are ripe, the pool water is swimmable, and flip-flops are starting to look like appropriate work apparel. Summer is finally, undeniably here, and so is (hopefully ...
What is the Big Idea? Human beings have biological clocks that are set to the path of the sun. But our modern lives disrupt this synchronization of internal and social clocks, causing permanent jet lag that might be the source of severe pathologies. Till Roenneberg, Interim Director of the ...