bigthinkeditor

bigthinkeditor

American consumers are inordinately willing to take a gamble on new products and it's thanks to them that the U.S. regularly produces huge successes like Dropbox.
The concept behind Flattr—an economy of “micro-payments”—should work quite well. The only problem is that it never has. 
Why have so many advertising dollars left traditional news media and what can, and should, journalists do to bring them back? A Columbia University report has some advice.  
Oscar-winning filmmaker James Marsh discusses the moments of inspiration behind his films and emphasizes the importance of trusting your instincts. 
Speculative pricing of the world's commodities is driving up the cost of everything from copper to wheat—while financial firms make billions in profits, it spells disaster for the world's poor. 
"In the long term the best way to beat radical ideas is to make them redundant," says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a politician and ardent critic of fundamentalist Islam. 
Praying and believing in a god might secure a healthier existence for your soul in the hereafter, but it doesn't necessarily do much for the body in this life, a new study shows.
Your overall happiness may depend in part on whether you drew the long or short version of a gene, say researchers who have uncovered a genetic link to happiness in a study of 2,500 Americans.
Large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly testing their drugs in Eastern Europe and Asia thanks to less red tape and lower operating costs, but is that good for American consumers?
You’ve probably never heard of them, yet they’ve changed your life, says Frederick E. Allen of the latest innovators inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Why are we good at reasoning in some cases and hopelessly biased in others? Did reasoning evolve just to help us win arguments? Argumentative Theory says yes.
All most people need to throw in the towel is a tinge of anger, humiliation, panic, rejection, stress, frustration, hurt, pain, jealousy, sorrow, or anguish. True leaders persevere.
Vision determines direction. Leadership is about going somewhere. If you aren’t going somewhere, your leadership style doesn’t matter. Plus more reasons vision is vital.
They cling to power rather than develop their economies, doing little to create jobs and lift millions out of poverty. So says former UN chief Kofi Annan about Africa's leaders.
No one knows more about life’s ethical dilemmas than Randy Cohen. After spending over a decade answering readers’ questions for the New York Times Magazine column The Ethicist, Cohen has fielded […]
Two Indian scientists have questioned reports that the long elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle", has been discovered, with one even denying the possibility of its physical existence.
As the Big Three—Google, Bing, and Yahoo—make subtle changes to their search algorithms, a new crop of search engine upstarts are rethinking what it means to search altogether, with the hopes of transforming your relationship to information.
In case we needed more evidence, digital publishing is not just here to stay but growing at an impressive rate, as notes Richard Mollet, chief executive of the Publishers Association.
Try to sue their pants off? Ignore it? Hope your fans defend you? Here one business-owner shares how they turned a competitor's online attack into an advantage.
Cars are increasingly becoming computers with wheels. Navigating, monitoring performance, maintenance, and even selling cars, is becoming digitalized.