Adaptability

Adaptability

Book cover for "Thinking Sideways" by Jennifer Shahade, featuring chess pieces and orange-tan checkered pattern; subtitle: "How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life.
In this excerpt from her new book, Jennifer Shahade argues that the smartest move in life, as in chess, is sometimes a sideways one.
Two stylized trees with intertwined roots and branches stand against a gradient background, symbolizing resilience, with floating leaves above them and abstract dark clouds overhead.
Long-lived companies show that resilience comes not from individual toughness, but from the strength of the systems around us.
Three illustrated rats in different colors stand upright together, surrounded by sketches and diagrams of rats, fencing patterns, and hints of rat survival strategies in the background.
Cognitive flexibility, opportunistic survival, and social cooperation have allowed rats to thrive in conditions that wipe out other species.
A sliced onion bulb with roots and stem, illuminated from behind and set against a black background, resembles the delicate layers of daffodils in bloom.
What a fragile flower can teach us about resilience, death, and becoming someone new.
A shirtless man, resembling Tommy Caldwell, climbs a steep rock face high above the ground, reaching for a hold with one hand and gripping the rock with the other; trees and a valley stretch out below.
A day in the Sierra Nevada with Tommy Caldwell reveals how pain, trauma, and “elective hardship” became the foundation of his fortitude.
A pattern of multicolored triangles with various abstract textures and designs on a muted blue background evokes the resilience paradox, balancing vibrancy and calm in a harmonious display.
When applied blindly, resilience can do real harm to our health and our ability to change broken systems.
The book cover of "How Flowers Made Our World" by David George Haskell features a large pink orchid, lush nature scenery, and hints at the evolutionary history of flowers, with text in white and yellow on a dark background.
Once land plants, seagrasses staged one of evolution’s boldest reversals — returning to the ocean and reinventing their biology to thrive beneath the waves.
Book cover of "The Algorithm" by Jon McNeill, featuring a bold red background with yellow patterns that evoke the complexity of the algorithm, along with striking white and black text.
Inside GM’s race to build the electric Hummer lies a powerful lesson in speed, simplicity, and the operating system required for exponential growth.
Office chair wrapped in bubble wrap and secured with brown tape, placed against a plain light blue background.
Activist, author, and Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani explains why playing it safe is hurting workplaces — and how to change it.
Aerial view of a speeding motorboat leaving a wake near a slower rowboat on dark blue water.
Your real competitive edge isn’t how smart you are — it’s how quickly you can reinvent yourself when the rules change.
A hand holds a red square above an eye shape, symbolizing the brain after blindness, with a geometric wireframe cube below on a blue circle, all set against a pale green background.
When people born blind gain sight, the hardest part isn’t opening their eyes — it’s teaching the brain how to see.
Jim Belushi, wearing a cowboy hat, sits outdoors on a bench surrounded by large jars of green plant material, with a river and trees in the background.
The actor, comedian, and marijuana cultivator on collaboration, success, and overcoming nerves — in business and life.
Three men in dark clothing sit and talk on a small boat in a harbor with ships and calm water in the background, under a hazy sky.
"Broadly speaking, it's at least plausible, this might be right."
Angus Fletcher, a man in a suit and glasses, stands in profile, touching his face in a dimly lit room with blurred lights and equipment in the background.
The great investor instinctively knew that humans are much smarter than computers in volatile environments. So he bet on common sense.
A split image showing a human hand making an "OK" gesture on the left, and an alien hand pointing with a glowing fingertip on the right.
The unanswered questions about sex, love, and pregnancy in space could shape the future of humanity more than we think.
A man in a red and gold robe, resembling Julius Caesar, kneels on the ground, reaching out as several men in white robes with raised weapons surround him.
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul but his emotional intelligence was pitiful — and there’s plenty we can learn from his leadership deficiencies.
Book cover for "AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That's Always Changing" by Liz Tran, featuring a beautifully blurred hummingbird.
Liz Tran makes the case for a new kind of intelligence that addresses our ability to handle today’s ever-fluctuating challenges: AQ.
An abstract illustration shows overlapping target patterns, tally marks, and a dart hitting the bullseye—capturing a kaizen spirit—with pink gridlines and muted beige, yellow, and red tones.
Kaizen taught me that tiny, consistent changes can be more powerful than dramatic overhauls.
A tortoise wearing a blue "1st Place" ribbon on its shell, posed against a plain light background.
Many top performers start behind — and overtake the early leaders later.
Illustration of a man in a suit with two shadowy, muscular figures flexing in the background, reminiscent of Ethan Suplee's transformation, set against a blue abstract backdrop.
The actor learned control, endurance, and focus on-set. Those lessons became the foundation of his real-world fight with addiction and self-hatred.
A person stands on a ladder trimming a green hedge decorated with pink flowers, while a large pair of scissors is visible in the foreground.
These cultural lies make normal struggle feel like failure. A habit of experimentation makes it feel like progress.
Book cover for "The Healing Power of Resilience" by Tara Narula, MD, featuring a flower entwined with an EKG line, symbolizing the healing power of resilience, on a beige background with a red border.
Tara Narula shares how journalist Richard Cohen challenged conventional ideas about illness, identity, and strength while living with MS.
A colorful silhouette of a person sits at a desk, using a computer with a monitor displaying horizontal static lines—an image inspired by the innovative creativity of Jeff DeGraff.
AI may be rewriting “how” we work — but not “why” we work. And this has profound implications for leadership.
Book cover featuring a stylized illustration of Michelangelo’s David, capturing the spirit of New Work, with the title “The Next Renaissance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential” by Zack Kass.
Author Zack Kass argues that AI will not end work — it will expand it, pushing us toward new ways of creating, connecting, and adding value.
The cover of the book "Intentional: How to Finish What You Start" by Chris Bailey, featuring bold white text on an orange background with a circular arrow graphic, highlights strategies like time blocking for productivity.
Time blocking is a remarkable technique for ensuring your daily actions are guided forward by your overarching goals and intentions. Here’s how to supercharge it.
Aerial view of a river delta with branching waterways, shaped by natural intelligence, flowing into the sea and surrounded by green and brown land.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
A person wearing a light-colored cloak stands in a dense, green forest, surrounded by tall trees and moss-covered ground—an ideal setting for quiet reflection and systems thinking.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Tim O'Reilly, an older man with short gray hair wearing a light blue button-up shirt, stands outdoors with arms crossed, surrounded by green trees.
Media trailblazer Tim O’Reilly tells Big Think why AI requires "get yourself dirty" work — and warns us not to buy the hype.
A sequence of four orange and black butterflies in motion, captured against a black background, their blurred wings a graceful display of butterfly wisdom in flight.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Three men in business attire and jackets stand before a collage background, featuring downward-trending graph lines on green paper, each displaying a CEO superpower as they navigate challenging markets.
From Charles Schwab to Jensen Huang, great leaders never attribute their success to flawless planning — they point instead to what went wrong.