Test Special Issue

Game Change

Do elite athletes really make elite employees?

Sports, we tend to assume, offer a sharp-edged reflection of business life in microcosm — leadership under pressure, the winning mentality, valuable lessons drawn from loss. It’s all there. Just kick back with a beer and a pizza and watch your pathway to workplace success unfold on game day. Well, it turns out that the connections are often far more nuanced than we might have presumed. Do elite athletes really make elite employees? What’s the connection between Swedish pragmatics in soccer and a thriving startup culture? Have you factored in the difference between “wicked” and “kind” environments (and what does that even mean)? We investigate all of these pivotal tangents, and much more, in this Big Think special collection of essays, interviews, and curated book excerpts. Forget everything you’ve been told about the synergies between sports and business. It’s time to rewrite the rules.

Blue background with the words "Game Change" in white, surrounded by strategic game symbols and graphs in the background.
Presented by
John Templeton Foundation
Two observatory domes under a starry night sky, with the Milky Way visible, form a stunning backdrop as an optical interferometer captures the universe's secrets.
Interferometry gave us a black hole's event horizon, but that was in the radio. What can we accomplish with a new optical interferometer?
Two Guy Fawkes masks in a pixelated, digital art style with one mask smiling and the other frowning, set against a dark background with faint green patterns.
Hackers are in an arms race with cyber defenders. Will AI tip the balance?
Collaged image of text and a black-and-white scene with a dinosaur and mountainous backdrop. The year "1950" is visible in the bottom left corner.
Dinosaurs and other beasts were once thought to be the “undisputed masters” of Venus.
Three versions of a buttercup flower: left is yellow in visible light, middle is pinkish in ultraviolet, and right is colorless in infrared—a glimpse into the diverse sensory umwelt surrounding us.
If you're out on a walk, you will see a different world than your dog, a bee, or an ant. Here are three reasons why that matters.
Planck CMB
Today, the deepest depths of intergalactic space aren't at absolute zero, but at a chill 2.73 K. How does that temperature change over time?
A clock face with moon phases as numbers, set against a blue sky with scattered clouds, creates a whimsical portrayal of lunar time.
Physicists recently created Coordinated Lunar Time, a time zone for our Moon.
Abstract design with human profiles, a silhouette of a person walking, and text reading "The Happiness Paradox 4" on a grid background.
Achieving values and pursuing growth is the real secret to a fulfilled life.
A map depicting historical migration paths with two human figures positioned in different regions, illustrating ancient travel routes. The map shows various colored regions representing different terrains.
Early modern humans interbred with Neanderthals — and scientists recently pinpointed a key site of contact.
Collage featuring a person sleeping at a desk, a hand holding a hotel bell, and sharks. The title "The Night Crawler" appears at the top.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
A vibrant, high-resolution image of a spiral galaxy with rich clusters of stars and interstellar dust, where most stars formed.
The Universe has been creating stars for nearly all 13.8 billion years of its history. But those photons can't match the Big Bang's light.
Illustration of two human silhouettes facing each other with neural connections and nodes, featuring the text "BORN AND MADE" on a green background.
7mins
“I'm often asked: “Are great strategic thinkers born, or are they made?” And my answer is always yes. Like so many human capabilities, it’s a mixture of nature, nurture and experience.”
A large telescope observatory under construction at dusk with a visible moon and stars in the sky. Cranes and construction equipment are present around the structure.
Comet A3, also known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, has sprung to life since 2024's last equinox. Here's how to catch the show for yourself.
Collage of scientific discovery elements including a portrait, butterfly, globe, molecular diagrams, a tree diagram, and a hand holding a test tube against a plain background.
Are breakthroughs really a matter of chance, or are they simply waiting to be uncovered by the right person at the right time?
A book spread showing a painting of a person, eyes filled with curiosity, looking outside on the left and four brain scan images on the right, overlaid on an orange background.
Research suggests curiosity triggers parts of the brain associated with anticipation, making answers more rewarding once discovered.
Aerial image of a Martian landscape with rough, textured surface featuring blue and reddish-brown hues marked by undulating ridges and valleys.
Scientists might be looking for Martian life in the wrong place.
Open book showing a goldfish on the left page set against a black background and a colorful circular pattern on the right page, symbolizing the vibrancy of company culture. The book lies flat on a neutral surface.
The multifaceted nature of company culture is what makes it so challenging — this guide will help you make sense of the complexity.
A man rubs his eyes while holding his glasses in his left hand and wearing a white shirt, with a watch on his left wrist, perhaps tired from hours of Zoom science sessions.
Why “audio gaps" in video meetings wear us out — and why we need the meaningful relationships forged in communal workspaces.
dark matter substructure intracluster light
In theory, dark matter is cold, collisionless, and only interacts via gravity. What we see in ultra-diffuse galaxies indicates otherwise.
An open book with a red page showing a black, abstract, circular design on the left and a black-and-white illustration of a person practicing Daoism while riding an ox next to a tree on the right.
"In that conversation with Laozi’s text, I began to see the shape of my own life, the questions that opened seams, the patterns that pooled and shimmered."