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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Transcript

Question: What is the most transformational idea in ecological intelligence?

Daniel Goleman: Well, I think that in terms of ecological intelligence, the big idea is radical transparency. Radical transparency is presenting to individuals the previously hidden impacts of the things they buy and do and giving them choice at that moment. And it’s radical because it traces those impacts across the multitude of environmental, health, and social impacts. And also, does it in a way where you can pair choices and can make a choice that makes a difference. So I think radical transparency is the big idea. Good Guide is an example of radical transparency, Skin Deep also. That’s the big idea there. I think the big idea in emotional intelligence is, you know, that there’s another very important way to be smart in life.