Guest Thinkers — February 22, 2011

The most brilliant thinkers in the world

The May 2008 issue of Portfolio magazine (“the brilliant issue”) has a listing of the 73 most brilliant thinkers in business – the rebels, upstarts, game changers and connectors who are changing the way we think about business. There are some familiar names, of course – Steven Spielberg, Rupert Murdoch & Lloyd Blankfein – but also a number of people you may not have heard of, like Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey of 23andMe. (Actually, come to think of it, you may have heard of Anne Wojcicki – she’s the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin!)

[image: Portfolio’s “Brilliant Issue”]

Hard Science

Plants perform quantum mechanics feats that scientists can only do at ultra-cold temperatures

Plants at room temperature show properties we had only seen near absolute zero.

The Past

The 1920s plan to make criminals confess to a terrifying skeleton

Would you confess your crimes to a skeleton with “an unnatural ghastly glow”? One inventor thought you would.

Smart Skills

Swamped by too much info? Here’s how to beat the “noise bottleneck”

It’s the paradoxical observation that the more we try to process, the less we actually can.

a painting of a woman shaking hands with a man.

Thinking

Philosophy obsesses about death. Instead, we need “natality” — a focus on birth

A philosophy of birth can offset the prevailing narrative around extinction and mortality.

a flock of pink birds flying through a cloudy sky.

The Well

Groupthink is for mindless pawns, but group thinking will push humanity further

“Groupthink” gets a bad rap. In reality, we need groups to focus our thinking and to build on the ideas of others.

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Innovation and the Simple Life

As John Maeda points out in his bestselling book The Laws of Simplicity, companies can unlock a tremendous amount of innovation by embracing the principles of simplicity.