Wednesday, August 6, 2008

You're Not Past Your Prime

Creativity is a passion of mine. I try to get my hands dirty as often as I can. I have my hands in a variety of different mediums like film, design, sculpture, textile, painting, photography & writing and I think it's safe to say that I'm not a prodigy in any of those fields. This is fine by me because I see myself more as a determined, hard worker than a natural genius; which is why this article by Gladwell that I recently stumbled upon makes good sense.

Gladwell gives a speech at Columbia and discusses a theory by Galenson stating that the creative person is one of two types; either a genius who peaks in his mid twenties or a late bloomer who earns his master piece after perfecting his work over a lifespan. It's actually kind of funny because he compares Fleetwood Mac to the Eagles and then goes on to compare Picasso & Cizanne, Melville &
Twain, Welles & Hitchcock, even Apple & Dell; each is an example of an early success and a late success. The difference between these two trains of thought is that the first knows their great idea and the second keeps working until they have something great. Galeson's book Old Masters & Young Geniuses highlights the life of innovators and artists to demonstrate how their creative thinking develops and becomes tangible.

For me it was reaffirming that I can still release my inner-genius even though I'm older than 26.

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