To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old

Posted April 7, 2017

External Article: The New York Times

John Walsh, professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, was quoted in “To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old” by The New York Times.

Excerpt:

On the contrary, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that late blooming is no anomaly. A 2016 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation study found that inventors peak in their late 40s and tend to be highly productive in the last half of their careers. Similarly, professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Hitotsubashi University in Japan, who studied data about patent holders, found that, in the United States, the average inventor sends in his or her application to the patent office at age 47, and that the highest-value patents often come from the oldest inventors — those over the age of 55.

John P. Walsh, one of the professors, joked that the Patent Office should give a “senior discount” because “there’s clear evidence that people with seniority are making important contributions to invention.”

For the full article, read here.