Experimental Innovators Peak In Creativity Late In Life

University of Chicago economist David Galenson's research has found that experimental innovators peak in creativity late in life, when the accumulated experience and time spent honing their craft coalesces into brilliance. Just look at the careers of Virginia Woolf, Paul Cézanne, Fyodor Dostoevsky, or John Darwin, all of whom made tremendous contributions after a long career. "These are people who work by trial and error, work uncertainly, and they become great later rather than early," he says.