Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

The Best 25 Inventions of the Year

The cover story in the current issue of TIME focuses on the 25 best inventions of the year. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Apple iPhone was ranked as the #1 gadget of the year as well as the #1 invention of the year. Other notable inventions of 2007 include: a battery from Sony that runs on sugar, a unique water works project developed by MIT, and a new artificial leg prosthesis. As a sidebar to the cover story, TIME includes a list of the Best Inventors of All Time. (Hint: If your name ain’t Leonardo or Galileo, you never really had a chance of appearing on this list)

[image: TIME]

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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?

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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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