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.

Big Think Features:

12,000+ Expert Videos

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

Watch videos

World Renowned Bloggers

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

Go to blogs

Big Think Edge

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.

Find out more

Transcript

Question: What big ideas have you had recently?

Dev Patnaik: I had three big ideas in one year and one of which I’m patenting right now. I’ll share with you the one that is in the process of being patented.

The big idea number one was that empathy was actually the source of innovation.

Big idea number two was about actually coming up with an innovation dashboard that actually helps companies play to their strengths by focusing on what they did well and not on stuff that they didn’t do well.

Big idea number three, was the pug dog. The pug dog was, I looked at the world and I thought there is no really great way to entertain my daughter and there is-- You can make a dog like this but that doesn’t really look like a dog. I think you make a dog that looks like this but that’s two-dimensional and yoyo has only one ear and I looked around and there’s no great ways to make a hand sign which looks like a dog so I came up with one and that’s what I call pug dog. And the way you got a pug dog is you make a fist, right, and then you lift up two sides like the ears and you drop down the tug and that’s the pug dog. Patent pending.

Conducted on: June 24, 2009.