The Learning Curve
Build your life better, smarter
Big Think and Big Think+ present The Learning Curve, a place where lifelong learners can find expert-led, science-backed advice for building their careers, improving their relationships, and living life to the fullest. Discover new strategies for tackling the relevant challenges and significant problems you face today.
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A physicist, a psychologist, and a philosopher walk into a bar and discuss a framework for thinking better in the 21st century.
According to Harvard career advisor Gorick Ng, this time-saving system can help us reclaim our work-life sanity.
Memories aren’t mental recordings, but pliable information we can use to better manage the present and conjure future possibilities.
Bertrand Russell shows us how to recognize emotional arguments smuggled into presumed statements of fact.
We can’t always change our horrible bosses — but we can transform the ways we interact with them.
Psychologist Noel Brick shares the mental techniques we can use to improve our performance on and off the field.
Actor and science communicator Alan Alda shares his three rules of three for effective and empathic communication.
Many conversations start awkwardly and derail from there, but a few simple techniques can put them back on track.
When we prepare for our plans to go wrong, we build the foundations for lasting profit.
The modern attention economy hijacks our ability to focus, but an ancient technique offers a means to get it back.
In our competitive world, fortune does not appear to favor the humble — but a strong counter-narrative is emerging.
In an environment of impressive IQs, emotional intelligence makes all the difference.
According to neuropsychologist Julia DiGangi, no one can live a life free of emotional pain. We can only choose how those emotions empower us.
In work and life, the rules of success are being redefined.
Philosopher Lee McIntyre discusses the dangers of disinformation, how such falsehoods spread, and what we can do about it.
We can no longer approach the news as passive consumers.
Scott Dikkers discusses comedy, the creative process, and life lessons learned playing peekaboo.
When a whoopsie-daisy just won’t cut it.
"Human connection is as threatened by unhealthy peace as it is by unhealthy conflict." —Priya Parker
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline relaunched last year with a new number, yet few Americans are aware of the helpline and its purpose.
Impossible standards and poor self-understanding are making us miserable.
Philosophers Massimo Pigliucci and Greg Lopez discuss how Stoicism can help us gain perspective on our emotions and act with intention in the world.
Meditation can put you in a wiser relationship with life.
The replication crisis has debunked many of psychology’s fair-haired hypotheses, but for the marshmallow test, things have only become more interesting.
Claims of a "loneliness epidemic" aren't based on robust data. Loneliness might be a problem, but it's not worse than it was in the past.
Despite a reputation for catastrophe and cat killings, curiosity is a beneficial drive that improves our lives and well-being.
Reading classic books can inform you as much about the present as the past.
Nagomi helps us find balance in discord by unifying the elements of life while staying true to ourselves.
Journaling helped Marcus Aurelius cultivate the emotional intelligence necessary to steer Rome through turbulent times.