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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Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.

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Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.

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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.

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Going Mental

Unlocking the secrets of your brain

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Going Mental

Time to End Eyewitness Testimony?

Shutterstock_100096787
1 day ago

This article originally appeared in the Newton blog on RealClearScience. You can read the original here.  The courtroom is hushed. A teenage boy has been slain, riddled with bullets during a drive-by shooting, and there, on the witness stand, is his crying mother. She's understandably weeping ...

Going Mental

Being Angry Makes Me Angry

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2 days ago

Some people enjoy being angry and some people really hate it and that is a known difference. It is a know dimension of individual differences.  For some people anger is a positive emotion. For others it’s negative.  I happen to be an extreme case with for me anger goes into depression very quickly ...

Going Mental

Separate the Argument from the Source.

Galef
2 days ago

You might find, as most of us do, that when you're arguing with someone you start to feel frustrated with them or combative with them or irritated by them and that can make it especially hard to rationally consider what they're saying.   So one trick that I've found particularly useful is to ...

Going Mental

How We Are Influenced by Super Symbols

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3 days ago

In Drunk Tank Pink I talk about the effect of symbols on various outcomes.  And some of the symbols I talk about I call super symbols.  And they’re super symbols because they have even greater meaning than maybe some other symbols do.  And I think maybe the greatest super symbol in our culture and ...

Going Mental

How Religion Can Reduce Stress

Michelangelo
4 days ago

If you look at the broad literature that has been done on religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and how they relate to human health the large majority of the studies point to a positive influence that when people are religious or spiritual they tend to have lower levels of stress, anxiety ...