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 impact has Sen. Harris Wooford had on the cause of service?

Queen Noor: Senator Wofford has to be one of my biggest heroes. Sargent Shriver and Senator Wofford were the driving force behind an institution, and more than that, a grand idea, the Peace Corps that inspired me in so many of my generation to understand that we could make meaningful contributions through public service, and that those contributions could have an impact on the larger world. I grew up as an Arab-American already feeling connected to a larger world. The Peace Corps and so much of what has grown out of it gave me the ability… it really motivated me and inspired me in everything that I have sought to achieve in my life since. And, as I have said on a number of occasions, the ideals and the values and the mission of the Peace Corps and of the spirit behind it really is what first drew King Hussein and myself together as we found common ground, having grown up in completely different worlds. We found common ground through this concept of public service and joined our lives together to carry on. I feel that I am a Peace Corps volunteer to this day and will continue to be and consider every Peace Corps volunteer a sister and a brother and a hero.