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.
Big ideas in the news from around the web
“President Obama not only left Washington, D.C., for the holidays, but the lower 48 as well. So I thought I'd offer a few New Year's resolutions for him and others to come back to in the coming year. First, to Mr. Obama's staff: The Norwegian Nobel Committee didn't want to wake the president to tell ...
James K. Galbraith is worried that a slump in the Euro’s value could undercut America’s rebound by making exports more expensive. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan thinks that businesses overestimated the recession, fired too many workers and so they will start hiring again soon. Ben Bernanke, who ...
“The deaths of seven Central Intelligence Agencyoperatives at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan are a pointed example of the civilian spy agency’s transformation in recent years into a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s far-flung wars. Even as the C.I.A. expands its ...
“A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007. Citing repeated government missteps, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed a case that had been steeped in ...
“Mir Hossein Mousavi, the Iranian opposition leader, has called for an immediate end to the government crackdown on opposition activists, saying he was ready to die in defence of people's rights. In a statement on his Kaleme website on Friday, Mousavi, also said that the Islamic Republic was in ...
“Research from the University of Reading suggests that two glasses of champagne a day may be good for your heart and circulation. The researchers have found that drinking champagne wine daily in moderate amounts causes improvements in the way blood vessels function. Champagne does this by increasing ...
“Today's Apple tabletrumor has an optimistic zing to it--and maybe that's a great way to close out a dreary 2009. According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. Lee worked for Apple ...
“New York's Tavern on the Green restaurant, a sumptuous tourist trap set in a lush grove in Central Park, will serve its last meal on New Year's Eve before changing hands. The restaurant, notorious among New Yorkers for its rude and laggardly waiting staff, has for years been one of the highest ...
“Time Warner Cable and News Corp's Fox Networks agreed to a brief extension of their current carriage contract on Thursday to avoid a blackout that would have prevented 13 million U.S. homes from seeing TV shows like ‘The Simpsons’ and college and NFL football games. The two sides continued to ...
“The US is planning retaliatory strikes in Yemen against al-Qaida over its attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day. American officials say intelligence efforts are focused on identifying and tracking down those who plotted to put Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the plane with enough ...
“The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will begin using more full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a ‘professional’ al-Qaida terror attack. A top Dutch official said a scanner of that type might have ...
“The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Wednesday that killed eight Americans believed to be CIA employees. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the attack in Khost province was carried out by a bomber wearing an explosives-laden vest. He, however, said that 13 U.S. soldiers ...
“Russia’s top space researchers will hold a closed-door meeting to plan a mission to deflect 99942 Apophis, an asteroid that will fly close to Earth two decades from now, said Anatoly N. Perminov, the head of Russia’s space agency, during an interview on Russian radio on Wednesday. Mr. Perminov said ...
“Li Nan has real estate fever. A 27- year-old steel trader at China Minmetals, a state-owned commodities company, Li lives with his parents in a cramped 700- square-foot apartment in west Beijing. Li originally planned to buy his own place when he got married, but after watching Beijing real estate ...
“It promises to go down to the wire and be every bit as exciting as an episode of 24. As the clocks chime in the new year, Rupert Murdoch's main US television channel Fox – home to The Simpsons, American Idol and 24 – may disappear from millions of homes. In one of the most vicious media disputes in ...