Self-Motivation
How to think like a Navy Seal
The “Limitless” pill exists, and you already have it in your brain.
Need to take your time back? Try these four open-thinking strategies.
Everyone has pondered what they would do with an extra hour a day. Would they get more sleep or spend more time with family? Spend time on a side project […]
Want to boost your problem-solving skills? Tune out to hone in.
Problem-solving skills are in demand. Every job posting lists them under must-have qualifications, and every job candidate claims to possess them, par excellence. Young entrepreneurs make solutions to social and […]
A top executive’s guide to propelling your career forward
It can sometimes feel like career progress is beyond your control. This can be especially acute if you are a young professional or entering a new industry. You’re too inexperienced, […]
6 laws for strategic networking
History is not the story of great people directing the course of the world. It’s about networks. Sure, great people may have had an outsized pull on certain events. But […]
The Best of the Best: Big Think+ in 2020
For many, 2020 will not be remembered as a “best of” much. We don’t need to repeat the reasons here; it’s sufficient to point out that a 100-year pandemic was […]
This year, ditch your career ladder for a career lattice!
The corporate word-stock suffers no shortage of overworked metaphors. We drill down to find low hanging fruit, and despite lots of moving parts obscuring our window of opportunity, we mustn’t […]
How should human values shape the future of AI?
There’s a fortune to be made in data and silicon, and everyone is out for their share. Artificial intelligence is this century’s gold rush. Its promises scintillate in them there […]
How to personalize your habit-forming strategy and conquer your new year’s resolution
It’s officially the new year, and you’ve probably set a goal. Perhaps you’ve decided on the classic New Year’s resolution: Buy a gym membership and get in shape. Fueled by […]
Cultivate the courage to beat impostor syndrome, with Edward Norton
“You will always be looking over your shoulder waiting for somebody to call you out and say, ‘You’re a fraud, you’re an idiot.’ … I still start things and basically […]
Are you being pseudo-productive? Dan Ariely reveals the dangers of structured procrastination
Most of us know not to procrastinate. And yet, between 80 and 95 percent of college students procrastinate on their schoolwork. As we grow older and (theoretically) more mature, we […]
How to achieve major goals and growth with ‘self-nudging’
It may very well be the case that there are some people who feel perfectly content with who they are out there, but for most of us, there are things […]
Nick Offerman’s key to success? Making mistakes.
Voltaire once wrote, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” This advice served him well over the course of his life — not being a slave to perfection enabled him to […]
Want to feel like Superman? Steven Kotler explains how to enter the ‘flow state’
Have you ever found yourself so engrossed in your work that, hours later, you’ve been shocked to discover you’ve missed your lunch break? Maybe you’ve had a conversation with a […]
Let curiosity lead you to the right questions with Tim Ferriss
During a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs related an anecdote about an experience he had shortly after dropping out of college that conveys one of the qualities […]
The unexpected secret to strong leadership? Humility.
One of Socrates’s best-known claims was that “I know that I know nothing.” It’s no fluke that this quote has survived more than 2,000 years or that Socrates is nearly […]
Knowledge is power: Keep your brain in shape with lifelong learning
We all know how it works. You need to go through at least 12 years of school — 16 years if you want a white-collar job. Then you’ve got your […]
Are you the one? How to flex your value and beat out the competition
Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitors? That’s the question at the heart of making a sale in a competitive market, says Matt Dixon, Global Head of […]
John Paul DeJoria: How to get your foot in the door and nail the sale
By the time John Paul DeJoria founded John Paul Mitchell Systems, he’d already sold encyclopedias on commission door-to-door, and he understood the importance of persistence in the face of rejection. […]
Lisa Lampanelli: Read the room like a comedian to improve audience engagement
Connecting with an audience, as any comic knows, means reading that audience. It’s energetic improv in real time—you need to notice who’s engaged, what’s engaging them, and build on that. […]
3 ways to build team trust and achieve the next big thing
“Trust is so important to how we scale an idea. Without that trust, we don’t take risks. And without risk we don’t build that next big thing,” says Nilofer Merchant, […]
Be the Most productive version of yourself, with CEO Kathryn Minshew
Be the Most Productive Version of Yourself: A Millennial Insider’s Guide to Getting More Done, with Kathryn Minshew, CEO and Co-founder, The Muse Figure out your most productive time and […]
Stand out from the pack, with comedian and author Baratunde Thurston
Social media wunderkind Baratunde Thurston says we’re living in an age of information overabundance, but that this needn’t be a problem. Just as supermarkets offer us many more choices of […]
3 public speaking tips guaranteed to lift your game
Should you find yourself speaking to a group of people and not connecting, you’re stuck in a situation that seemingly benefits no one. For some people it seems to come […]
How to stop fearing deadlines and start using them
“Doing any sort of creative work takes so much intellectual tussle that if there’s any way you can escape from it, you will.” So says Tina Brown, founder of the […]
Bryan Cranston: How to manage opportunity when time is precious
After his breakout performance as Breaking Bad’s Walter White — and after playing dad Hal in Malcolm in the Middle — it might seem that Bryan Cranston’s always been as […]
Quiet your inner negativity, with former Navy SEAL David Goggins
“Self-talk has been the biggest thing in my life,” says former Navy SEAL David Goggins. He knows he’s not alone. He also knows it’s largely, to use his words, “a […]
Tim Ferriss: How to break the procrastination spell – for good
Is there anyone who hasn’t at one time or another found themselves procrastinating? It can gradually become a terrible trap: As a deadline looms, the task seems to grow bigger […]
Innovation: These two things increase your chance of making a breakthrough
Physicist and author of Einstein’s Dreams Alan Lightman once did a study of 30 of science’s great discoveries. He wanted to learn what he could about the creative process from […]
Barbara Oakley: How too much focus can limit your creativity
Have you ever had the experience of giving up on a problem and coming back to it some time later to find its solution suddenly obvious? According to Barbara Oakley, […]