Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

Advanced readers are bored

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Hot off the press!

Advanced readers are bored by drill-and-kill exercises

Big surprise, I know. I invite you to read the article and share your thoughts. What do you think of the highly-regimented instruction described in this article? What do you think those parents who are concerned should do?

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

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Smart Skills

The creativity hack no one told you about: Read the obits

Reading obituaries can boost creativity by exposing you to distant ideas, fueling the associations that lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

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Books

What happens when you follow the Bible literally for a whole year?

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Science fiction, Project Blue Book, and the beginnings of the UFO craze

In this preview from “The Saucerian,” author Gabriel Mckee explains how the combination of fantastical stories and obscure bureaucracy launched the “space age of the imagination.”

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The Past

How scientists unearthed the cosmic catastrophe that paved the way for humanity

If an asteroid hadn’t killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.

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Business

The Morissa Schwartz interview: AI and the new media landscape

The founder of GenZ Publishing joins Big Think from the infinitely unfurling confluence of print and digital.

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