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

Fearlessness is about risk taking. Keep it in the back of your mind that this is what separates people as they move up.

If you work at a company and things might be going fine. It looks okay. It seems to be working. People who are fearless and the CEOs I interviewed have almost a reverence in their voice for people who are fearless. They will go to them and say I know things are fine, they’re working fine, they’ve been working fine for awhile, but they could be a lot better and we need to break it, we may need to turn it inside out and upside down, but it will be better as a result for it.

There are so many people in companies today, I think, that say give me my job, tell me what I need to do. CEOs love people who say I've been looking at this thing and studying it and I actually think it can be a lot better. Now we’re going to have to shake some things up. That will really make you stand out.