What is Big Think?  

We are Big Idea Hunters…

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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Blog Posts

Mind Matters

The eBooks Battle: I'm With MacMac

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over 3 years ago

I buy books. I also have written a book. So I have a more-than-idle interest in this week's giant-monster fight over ebooks, which pitted Amazon against the big publisher Macmillan and, indirectly, Steve Jobs. My first thought as an author was for the African proverb ("when elephants fight, it ...

Picture This

Game On

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over 3 years ago

The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints may be set to meet in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami next Sunday, but a side bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art really caught my art-loving eye.  What began as a friendly little wager involving nice but minor figures ...

IdeaFeed

Guardian Angel?

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over 3 years ago

Mutation of the gene dubbed the “guardian angel” for its ability to protect the body from genetic instability leads to cellular changes responsible for triggering premature birth, according to a study appearing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. “The research by scientists in the Division of ...

IdeaFeed

“Retard” Blasted

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over 3 years ago

Failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is calling on the White House to fire Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for using the word “retarded” during a strategy session last year. “In a posting on her Facebook page Monday, Palin blasted Emanuel for calling an idea from some of President Obama's ...

IdeaFeed

World Convalescence

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over 3 years ago

“So what did I make of this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos? It felt like sitting at the bedside of somebody who had survived a heart attack but was unsure how long it would take to recover full vigour, if, indeed, he would at all. The mood of “Davos men” (yes, they mostly ...

IdeaFeed

Net Misery

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over 3 years ago

British psychologists have discovered that people who spend a considerable time online are less likely to be happy than those who don’t, claiming there’s “a dark side” to web surfing. “A small group of the worst affected individuals were both depressed and addicted. But it was not clear whether ...

IdeaFeed

Cultural Shift

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over 3 years ago

“President Barack Obama may get his wish to allow gays to serve openly in the military - not because of his powers of persuasion but because arguments against it have lost traction over time. A cultural shift since Congress passed a legal ban nearly a generation ago has changed the debate. For many ...

IdeaFeed

Banking Spies

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over 3 years ago

“It is hard to imagine two more distrusted and reviled professions. One has been accused of torturing detainees and failing to track down Islamist terror suspects; the other is widely perceived to be responsible for the worldwide recession. Now, in a move likely to provoke a perfect storm of ...

IdeaFeed

Feng Shui Will

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over 3 years ago

“The practice of feng shui figured prominently in the fight over the estate of one of Asia's wealthiest women, Nina Wang. Her lover and feng shui adviser, Tony Chan, said a 2006 will she allegedly signed, left her estate to him. Her family's Chinachem Charitable Foundation, claimed that will was a ...

IdeaFeed

Sodomy Trial

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over 3 years ago

The leader of Malaysia’s opposition party, Anwar Ibrahim, has gone on trial for sodomy in Kuala Lumpur after his DNA was found on the male aide making allegations of rape. “Mr Anwar has consistently denied the allegations, calling them a conspiracy aimed at breaking his increasingly strong political ...

IdeaFeed

Enriching Iran?

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over 3 years ago

The United States has reacted warily after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran appeared to accept a deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. “Ahmadinejad said Iran would have ‘no problem’ if most of its stock was held for several months before being returned as fuel rods. The US said that ...

IdeaFeed

Bipolar Genii

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over 3 years ago

Scientists have uncovered powerful evidence showing the connection between intelligence and madness, revealing that high-achievers are far more likely to be manic depressives. “Speculation that the two may be related dates back millennia, and can be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato and ...

What's New at Big Think

Why You Can't Work at Work

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over 3 years ago

There’s a reason why the subtle trivialities of office life have long been a springboard for some of our most absurd humor: much of our day-to-day duties are arbitrary, unnecessary, yet seem to linger on in almost every profession. As today’s guest and co-founder of 37signals, Jason Fried, explains ...

Waq al-Waq

Waq al-waq Fix

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over 3 years ago

Both Brian and I have taken a couple of steps back over the past couple of days (for different reasons) but also to contemplate potential changes to Waq al-waq and its future. Thus, the lack of postings. But for those who just can't get enough. Brian did a Bloggingheads segment, available here. ...