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.
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Big Think Intern
What’s the Big Idea? Today, young adults are taking a decade longer to complete the transition to adulthood than did their parents and grandparents. A phase that once consisted of a few awkward years has evolved into a whole new developmental stage of its own: adultolescence. This cultural ...
Editor's Note: David Berning is an intern at Big Think. As the sun sets on yet another flip-flop summer, the seasonal tide of temporary employment has begun to recede. Those of us who are returning to college now have to come to terms with the sad realization that we'll spend the next nine ...
What's the Big Idea? We all recall the scene from the Matrix when Neo (the “chosen-one”) gets wired to a computer and in a matter of milliseconds is programmed into a Kung Fu master. Learning by osmosis -- or download -- is an irresistible idea, but physicists like Dr. Michio Kaku say it's not ...
What's the Big Idea? Every culture in history has had an archetype of the wise woman. Throughout history, the voices of these women have been categorically suppressed. But now, more than ever, smart, independent women -- past and present -- are being embraced, recognized, and listened to. Of ...
What's the Big Idea? In a blog post from December 2010, Dr. Michio Kaku discussed the perils of our public school system and called into question the schools' curiosity-crippling methods, which he believes cause intellectual stagnation among our nation's children. Dr. Kaku’s sentiments seem ...