Guest Thinkers — May 24, 2011

Sal Khan: The Secret of My Success

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Lots of practice. How do you transform education? For Sal Khan, the mastermind behind the online phenomenon Khan Academy, the key is preparation.

Daniel Honan

Khan Academy serves up hundreds of thousands of online lessons every day, and is changing education as we know it. The site offers easily digestible, 10-minute lesssons on a wide variety of subjects that allow students to learn at their own pace.

The man behind this innovative non-profit is Sal Khan, who teaches all of the lessons using Adobe Illustrator, a natural talent for teaching, and above all, a unique and refreshing approach to preparation. Khan shares his advice with Big Think, and educators everywhere: prepare your thoughts, not a script. Watch here:

A pixelated image of a person in a white hoodie walking in the woods, with the person's face obscured by pixelation. The background features reddish handwritten text overlay.

Neuropsych

25 years since Columbine: We’re closer to decoding mass-shooter psychology

Public mass shooters almost always have worldviews shaped by the "3 Rs": rage, resentment, and revenge.

An edited image of elmo peeking out from a trash can, positioned among scattered multiple cartoon-like chat bubbles expressing humorous thoughts.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: “Is there anything wrong with trauma dumping?”

When does "oversharing" become an issue?

Bald man in casual attire sitting on a stool with a strategic diagram background in yellow.

Leadership

Adam Grant on how to identify and develop high-potential leaders

The ability to toggle between abstract and concrete thinking is a key differentiator of high-potential leaders.

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Business

Want true success? Be more philosophical about “good” and “bad” failure.

Bob Dylan gave us the paradoxical gem "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." He had a point.

Starts With A Bang

The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong

Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?

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