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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Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.
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Guest posts from thought leaders
This post originally appeared in RealClearScience's Newton blog. You can read the original here. Ah, sleep: life's natural, blessed repose from the ardors of arousal. As a physiological necessity, we desire and crave it. Yet for so many Americans, sleep's caressing graces are unattainable ...
Eighty-six percent of American students say tablets help them study more efficiently, and their teachers are almost as supportive, with 81 percent believing the portable technology enriches classroom learning. But a tablet is only as effective as the apps it contains. Read on to discover the 7 ...
When we talk about the importance of global business education, most people think about the integration of international business concepts into the curriculum, or opportunities to take students abroad. Increasingly important, though, is the degree of international diversity in the classroom. A ...
On May 2nd, 1956, acclaimed theoretical physicist Richard Feyman gave a lunchtime talk at the California Institute of Technology. The relation between science and religion was on the docket that day. To organize his thoughts, Feynman wove what may be a familiar story: A young man, brought up ...
The Intangible: Earn Trust. Be Relatable. Be Influential. Be Creative. Level Status. Resolve Conflict. Leverage Talent. Build Strong Teams. The Tangible: “Yes, And…” Outside of an awfully good oxymoron, and with all due respect to a “red herring,” there are few two-word expressions that ...
The American Founders were deeply suspicious of Democracy, and structured a Constitution designed to protect both personal liberties and property from the tyranny of the majority. But the critical problem confronting America today is not the majority using its popular vote to seize property from ...
Rook to B8. Checkmate. There's nothing quite like the feeling of defeating a worthy opponent in a game of chess: the ultimate battle of the wits. Of course, it's not a feeling I have very often, since I'm not very good at chess. On the other hand, my father is officially an "Expert" and my ...
I write this from Yangshuo, China where I am currently based studying Tai Chi and Internal Kungfu. My next journey is to the Wudangshan mountains in Hubei province. This is something I dreamed of before. So here I am achieving my dreams, and studying in China, a whole different world and ...
Are you feeling the pressure? We are all under it, these days. As the incoming CEO of a large, national health care organization, I work with men and women who face high-stakes decisions daily that can save lives as well as impact the health and well-being of our members and their families. Often ...
According to a survey by Pew Research Center, 25 percent of adult Americans had smart phones in 2011. Fast forward a year, and that percentage is now up to 45 — this number includes almost half of all U.S. adults, and it surpasses those who have regular cell phones. Teens are following right behind ...
Do you believe in free will? Some physicists and neuroscientists believe in the opposite proposition: determinism. The mathematics of quantum mechanics have a say in this argument: Determinism is impossible unless you are willing to make an even greater philosophical sacrifice. A ...
Science and stereotypes have been inextricably linked for centuries. Take the periodic table; it is nothing but a set of stereotypes of how atoms of elements behave. Some are more reactive than others and it all has to do with where they live on the table. Periodic table stereotypes are ...
Everybody tells you that a mentor is important for your development, but finding one is often another matter. In fact, it is much easier to give advice about the value of a mentor than to actually find one. I had the good fortune of having a mentor who significantly influenced me as a young leader ...
Humans have the unique talent to imagine the prospective in rich, complete detail. Futurists from past generations foretold a global paradigm shift, buttressed by interconnectivity, digitization, seamless space travel, and policemen equipped with surgically fastened, bat-like wings. Granted, it ...
Over the past few days, Tom Hartsfield and Alex Berezow have been mining data in an attempt to decipher what meaningful correlations exist between guns and violence, if indeed any do at all. Their analyses have been instructive and controversial, to say the least. Though there's a paucity of ...