November 17, 2013

Doris Lessing: Learning is Understanding Something You’ve Understood All Your Life, in a New Way

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.” -Doris Lessing, 1919 – 2013

bigthinkeditor

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”

-Doris Lessing, 1919 – 2013

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Under the night sky, where the Milky Way galaxy glows above a silhouette of trees and a mountain, stars scatter across the deep blue and purple expanse. It's an ideal backdrop for alien hunting, sparking curiosity about potential biosignatures hidden among those distant celestial wonders.

Hard Science

Doubts grow about the biosignature approach to alien-hunting

Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.

Gloved hands holding a computer processor chip, viewed from an angled perspective against a black background.

The Future

AI is now designing chips for AI

AI software is rapidly accelerating chip design, potentially leveling up the speed of innovation across the economy.

Grayscale image showing a flying object captured on radar screen with various data markings.

13.8

New UFO hearings continue an “endless loop” of sensation

Astronomer Adam Frank asks: With so many extraordinary claims, why can’t anybody produce the proof?

A gloved hand grips a vaccine-loaded syringe, framed by a red-tinted portrait of a historical figure in the center and a grainy black-and-white landscape on the right.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: When should you try to change your friend’s beliefs?

“I have a friend who thinks vaccines cause autism,” writes Nina. “What can I do?”

Medical professionals, with an unwavering focus on patient care, don blue surgical masks and caps in a hospital setting, ensuring their work remains free from bias and dedicated to the well-being of each individual.

Business

How “Taleb’s Surgeon” redefines what expertise look like

The truly talented are those who got to where they are despite preconceived expectations.

Up Next

Rethinking Self-Control: The Psychology of Waiting

When we fail to exercise self-control, this may not be a “failure” as we traditionally think of it. In fact, it may be “a reasoned response to the uncertainty of time.