A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so. — Albert Einstein
The Washington Post published an article on Friday about older folks and creativity. In it, the author stated that many Nobel prize winners receive their award for work done early in their career. Even though it often takes decades for that work to win the award, the recipients were young when they created it.
Researchers wondered if Einstein’s quote was accurate. Do younger folks have the edge over older folks? Does creativity decrease (or die) as we age?
When they looked at the data more closely, they realized that the secret behind younger prize winners’ creativity was their productivity early in their career. It seems that the winners were most productive at a young age and as they got older their productivity decreased. Their results had more to do with the amount of work they produced than the creativity behind it.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was a teenager when he painted the angel for his master’s “Baptism of Christ.” He was 51 when he started work on the most famous painting in history, the “Mona Lisa.” Claude Monet painted some of his most impressive artwork when he was in his late 60’s and early 70’s. Monet’s eyesight was failing him as well. Titian painted well into his 80’s. Paul Cézanne produced some of his most magnificent work at the end of his life.
Many authors didn’t hit their stride until late in life. Bram Stoker wrote Dracula at 50. Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish “Little House on the Prairie” until she was 64. George Eliot published her book “Middlemarch” when she was 55. Charles Darwin published “Origin of the Species” at 50. Picasso produced a torrent of paintings and etchings in his late 80’s.
Creativity varies by type
Scientific American released an article stating that creativity varies by types. For example, poets and mathematicians tend to have peaked early in life with rapid declines later. Other artists have later peaks and slower or even minimal declines. Creativity seems to stay active in many individuals well into their 60’s and 70’s and beyond. One reason may be that life interrupts many late bloomers. Work and family postpone creative potential. Once those obligations are behind them, late bloomers can blossom, and creativity explodes.
What’s really interesting from the neuroscience point of view is that we are hard-wired for creativity for as long as we stay at it, as long as nothing bad happens to our brain. — Mark Walton (author of “Boundless Potential”)
Maturity and creativity
It seems that maturity and creativity go hand in hand. We lament, sometimes, that we did not start our creative path earlier in life. It may be that starting earlier wouldn’t have helped at all. The sculptor Louise Bourgeois created her greatest work after the age of 80. An interviewer asked her if she could have created that work earlier in her career. She replied, “Absolutely not. I was not sophisticated enough.”
Doesn’t this sound like good news? Age appears to have nothing to do with creativity. In fact, the older you get, the greater your opportunity to be creative.
A brush stroke away!
So why are you waiting? There has never been a better time for you to pick up that paint brush and create your legacy. With the right training and support, your masterpiece could only be a brush stroke away! Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Live it, love it, paint it!
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