A study of 4,000 professionals across the U.S. and 300 international leaders has found that there is a check list that bosses look for in grooming and promoting their staff.
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The average Facebook user now has about 338 friends, though the median number is quite a bit lower: 200. This means that while half of all Facebook users have 200 […]
Big Think’s resident economist Daniel Altman explains why Brazil needs to not only host the World Cup but win it too if it wants to see an economic boost from […]
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We may have the best intentions, but our minds may still play tricks on us. This can complicate situations in ways that we’re not even aware, and produce negative outcomes. […]
From what we know about the limits of human cognition, we appear ill-suited to sift through the thousands, if not millions, of potential dates waiting for us out there.
Black Friday is a symbol of American over-consumption and classist judgement. It’s a good thing that retailers want to do away with the event.
When you work, do you often use a computer? If the answer is yes, then the specific answer is: you use a classical computer. That is what your machine is […]
It can be difficult to hear about the areas where we need to improve. Even if someone is skilled at giving feedback, listening to what we could be doing better […]
In this 5-part Big Think Mentor workshop, Julia Galef, President of the Center for Applied Rationality, teaches how to better understand some of the most common cognitive biases and fallacies – and ultimately make better decisions.
Being kind and volunteering one’s time are selfish acts. Research has shown that helping others through volunteer work actually increases one’s overall sense of well-being, including building emotional resilience and reducing stress levels. […]
Ai Weiwei. Kara Walker. Pussy Riot. Guerrilla Girls. Orwell. Art has long been an empowering outlet for speaking out against injustices. Politics aside, just the simple act of enjoying another […]
The “Lean In” movement that Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg founded with her book of the same name continued a conversation psychologist Matina Horner started 46 years ago. In Horner’s famous study, […]
Spoiler: NO, not a chance. Now find out why. “There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best […]
Despite knuckle-gripping tension and mass nuclear proliferation during the Cold War, not a single detonation has caused mass civilian casualties since 1945. According to investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, such good fortune is nothing more than blind luck.
The massive damage humans have done to the natural world has provoked a backlash that could be just as dangerous, or more. There is a growing global rejection of technology and almost anything human-made in favor of whatever is more ‘natural’. But a simplistic rejection of modern technologies eliminates many of our best options for solving the problems we’ve created.
Turns out that being nice to other people isn’t just good for the recipients of your kindness. According to the latest research, people who are generous and altruistic reap a […]
Tired of driving? Soon hitting the road will be as simple as pressing a button, sitting back, and relaxing while a hard drive does all the work.
Spin a roulette wheel a million times, and you’ll see a fairly even split between black and red. But spin it a few dozen times, and there might be “streaks” of one or the other. The gambler’s fallacy leads bettors to believe that they odds are better if they bet against the streak. But the wheel has no memory of previous spins; for each round, leaving aside those pesky green zeroes, the odds for each color are always going to be 50-50.
These cosmic monsters make the LHC look like child’s play, and yet even they have their limits. “Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.” –Bill Bryson You […]
The Week’s Ryan Cooper calls the 2014 midterms “perhaps the least consequential American election season in a generation,” but argues that’s not a reason to stay home.
Who are the Millennials? They tend to vote Democrat and are largely liberal, but they’re not attached to the Democratic Party. They’re the most diverse American generation: over 40% are […]
It takes bright ideas and business savvy to make waves in Silicon Valley. It’s also important to not be a jerk.
Stephen Dubner on the strategy lessons of his latest book Think Like a Freak.
Research and testing of potential vaccines is a slow-moving process. As authorities strive to contain the current West African epidemic, scientists are already looking toward the next outbreak.
NASA researchers recently announced that life beyond our planet will be discovered in the next twenty years. Bill Nye, everyone’s favorite “Science Guy,” an educator, scientist, and the CEO of […]
Laura Rittenhouse is a 21st century Orwell, who scours shareholder letters for “cliches, weasel words, jargon, hyperbole, nonsensical statements, and overused words.”]
The concept of an Internet “troll” is puzzling, if you think about it. No non-digital troll relishes anonymity or sneakily provokes or harrasses others with snarky comments. Trolls in literature […]
The average American with a full-time job works 1,700 hours a year. That’s a lot of hours. Given how much time we spend with our co-workers, shouldn’t we want to […]
In an exciting development for electric cars, Elon Musk, the C.E.O. of Tesla Motors, has announced on the company’s blog that he’s making all of Telsa’s patents public in the […]
Theorems are gold in math. But in physics? The Universe will surprise you. “What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.”–Theodore Roethke Physics is one of the […]