David Galenson, an economic historian, has scoured the records of art auctions, counted entries in poetry anthologies, tallied images in art history textbooks – and then sliced and diced the numbers to reveal the source code of the creative mind – amazing!
What he has found is that genius comes in two very different forms. “Conceptual innovators,” make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. “Experimental innovators” proceed through a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers. He allows that people can change camps over the course of a career, but he thinks it’s difficult.
“Since the Renaissance, genius has been associated with virtuosos who are young.The idea is that you’re born that way – it’s innate and it manifests itself very young,” Galenson says, “We need those brash, certain, paradigm-busting youthful conceptualists. We should give them free rein to do bold work and avoid saddling them with rules and bureaucracy. But we should also leave room for those of us who have, er, avoided peaking too early, whose most innovative days may lie ahead. Nobody would have heard of Jackson Pollock had he died at 31. But the same would be true had Pollock given up at 31. He didn’t. He kept at it. We need to look at that more halting, less certain fellow and perhaps not write him off too early, give them a chance to ride the upward curve of middle age.”
Source: Wired Magazine article “What Kind of Genius are You?”
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August 30, 2010 
