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 ideas in the news from around the web
"If the United States is to have a sustainable toehold in Asia, Washington has to start paying serious attention to some countries in the region that are not China or India," writes Ernest Z. Bower. "There are 10 other countries in particular that hold the key to America’s central role in all of ...
When it comes to compliments "we often hear what we want to hear," writes Elizabeth Bernstein. "If we are feeling secure—say, we've just done a fine job at work, lost weight or had a good hair day—it's easy to register the praise. But at times when we're mired in self-doubt—or if the comment hits ...
In the months before the invasion of Sicily, British spies fooled German spies with a caper inspired by a detective novel, but Malcolm Gladwell wonders whether the incident is a case for or against spying. The lesson of the incident was that "The proper function of spies is to remind those who rely ...
"The age-old atavistic lust for war ... never really goes away," writes Evan Thomas. "It is too fundamental to the male psyche." He writes that we go through generational cycles of mythologizing war and then remembering its horrors. "Since 9/11, with the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've ...
Recent research suggests that, all over the world, many people might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that it's a good thing that they are. "Soaps, it turns out, are shaping behavior in ways that are subtle, profound and, from the standpoint of global development experts ...
"The secret of excellent proofreading is caring intensely about getting things right and loathing error with an intensity that perhaps only fascism or an alimony-collecting ex-wife deserves," writes Joseph Epstein. "Such people appear to have departed the earth, and don’t figure soon to return ...
Group theory "bridges the arts and sciences," writes Steven Strogatz. "It addresses something the two cultures share—an abiding fascination with symmetry." He explains how group theory "underlies everything from the choreography of contra dancing and the fundamental laws of particle physics, to ...
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton writes that "It is hard to conclude anything except that the Obama administration is resigned to Iran possessing nuclear weapons. While U.S. policy makers will not welcome that outcome, they certainly hope as a corollary that Iran can be contained and deterred ...
New studies indicate that combining exercise activities (like walking or biking) with nature boosts mental health and well-being. Researchers found that mood and self-esteem were greatly improved by doing activities in locations such as a park, garden, or nature trail, and the biggest effect was ...
"Europe used to be, within the living memory of many of us, the cockpit of world power, prosperity and prestige. Today it is raw material for an ouija board," writes Walter Lacquer. "What will Europe be like ten or twenty years from now? With a little luck it will gradually recover from its present ...
New data "suggests a much-desired 'rebalancing' of the global economy," writes Robert Samuelson. "The world needs a new engine of growth to replace free-spending American consumers and their ravenous appetite for other countries' exports. ... Advanced countries can no longer borrow their way to ...
While acknowledging the progress over the past 50 years that was enabled by birth control pills, Geraldine Sealey thinks that we need new methods beyond hormonal contraception. "To achieve true reproductive choice and freedom for all women, we need to start having a more realistic discussion about ...
Morality is an indirect consequence of evolution that balances the needs of individual survival and satisfaction with those of society, writes a contributor at Psychology Today. "If morality were a direct product of evolution, it would presumably enhance our fitness and thus we would have evolved to ...
Our age's outright attack on God may just be a reactionary response from an "ideology of reason" that imitates the dogmatic methods it is critical of, says The Spectator. "Take those scientists who promote not science but scientism—the belief that science can deal with every aspect of existence. The ...
The supposed infallibility of DNA test results, due to individuals' unique gene sequences, creates a cult of unaccountability that can lead to false convictions. "Outside scientific circles, this perilous distortion of DNA evidence has gotten little attention. This is partly because the underlying ...