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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What's the Big Idea? In our current atmosphere of high unemployment there are many factors that have prevented companies from growing faster and adding jobs. But one area that has not received nearly as much attention is the labor shortage when it comes to skilled workers. Recruiters simply can ...
What's the Big Idea? Each year, the Ig Nobel awards recognize the most improbable achievements in science, medicine, and technology - the surprising findings that make you laugh, then think, according to the award's presenters. Last year, an Italian paper won an award for pointing out that it’s ...
What's the Big Idea? International trade has expanded by nearly 5% over the past decade. Last year, world merchandise exports grew by 14% according to the WTO - and this despite the volatility of the financial markets and growing skepticism about free trade agreements in some quarters. It's ...
What’s the Big Idea? It turns out that the idea of lemmings following one another off a cliff was planted in the American brain by the Walt Disney Corporation, whose film crew hurled a bunch of lemmings into a river for the 1958 documentary White Wilderness. My reaction to this news?: total ...
What’s the Big Idea? In the corporate world of yesteryear, workers' healthcare and retirement plans were far more straightforward and standardized affairs than they are today, left for the most part in the (hopefully) capable hands of Headquarters. Today's workers (those lucky enough to have ...
What's the Big idea? In 1980, visionary CEO John Mackey co-founded Whole Foods and eventually turned it into a rapidly growing, solidly profitable business. And then he lived happily ever after. Well, actually, it wasn't quite that simple. As Mackey learned, growing and sustaining a business ...
What’s the Big Idea? Employees aren’t children (by law in the United States, at least) but unsuccessful parents and bosses have one thing in common: they are expert demotivators. Skillful leadership is always a matter of nudging people in positive directions while respecting their ideas and ...
What's the Big Idea? Google keeps flamingos in the courtyard of one of its campuses. Pixar’s studios have more in common aesthetically with a theme park than with the cubicle-and-filing cabinet arrangement that has come to symbolize the soullessness of office drudgery to anyone born after the ...
What’s the Big Idea? Having trouble figuring out what you want to be when you grow up? The online shoestore Zappos can help you figure out what you don’t want to be. According to psychologist Dan Ariely, Zappos’ policy of offering potential hires $3000 not to take the job is smart ...
Want to build a strong and sustainable business, political movement, or religion? According to John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, the wise leader follows the example of one of the most ancient cultures on Earth: yogurt. In this excerpt from David Mamet’s ...
“How long is a generation these days?” – Zadie Smith, “Generation Why?” (New York Review of Books) Like a “zeitgeist,” a “generation” is a slippery thing that nonetheless seems to have certain definite characteristics. “Millennials,” so ...
According to psychologist Dan Ariely, Google’s policy of giving employees free reign over 20% of their work week – one full day out of five – makes for happier, more passionate workers and a better, more creative company. What’s the Big Idea? You are busy. Crazy busy. You’re ...
I’m not happy at work. That is what more and more workers around the world are saying today. In fact, according to a new survey, between 28% and 56% of workers in 17 key countries around the world are seriously considering leaving their jobs at the present time, with younger workers even more ...
Whole Foods has been a corporate pioneer in evolving its “higher purpose.” John Mackey, its visionary CEO, explains that the Millennial generation was born to engage, and overcome, lofty challenges. Watch the video here: What’s the Big Idea? A recent study found that ...
“Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend” – Loverboy What's the Big Idea? While it may be true, as Loverboy noted back in 1981, that many of us are “workin’ for the weekend ...