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三十多岁才是人生中最具创造力的时候。美国经济研究机构NBER发表Benjamin Jones 、Bruce A. Weinberg、E. J. Reedy的研究论文，文章比较了伟大的发明家和诺贝尔科学奖得主的事业巅峰期，他们发现，
35岁以后是一个人发挥才能的最佳时期。让我们先来看看LCD Soundsystem乐队前主唱James Murphy的人生故事。Murphy认为，他“人生中最大的错误”发生在21岁那年。当年，他拒绝了一份情景喜剧的编剧工作。
这部喜剧正是《宋飞正传》（Seinfeld）。它被评为“20世纪最伟大的剧集”，获奖无数，连播近10年之久。
在那之后，James Murphy的人生道路曲折蹒跚。他先是去看大门，然后做了DJ。终于，在不那么年轻的35岁时，他主唱的LCD Soundsystem 乐队总算发了第一张唱片。
与流行音乐同行相比，Murphy显然属于大器晚成。不过，放眼全社会，但凡在事业上有所突破的群体中，Murphy的人生经历却是再普通不过的了。
图 1：20世纪伟大发明家和诺贝尔科学奖获得者达到事业巅峰的年龄分布图
下图是纵观20世纪，抽样群体达到事业巅峰的时间段。可以看出，
随着时间的推移，这些人达到事业巅峰的年龄越来越晚，部分是因为年代越靠后，人需要学习的知识就越多。图 2 ：以1935年和1965年为两个时间节点，将20世纪划分为三段，各个阶段中抽样群体达到事业高峰的年龄
而且，在事业上有所成就的群体当中，那些擅长抽象思维的人，事业巅峰大体上比需要深厚专业知识背景的人来得早。例如，在艺术或者物理学领域有所成就的人，就比历史学或者医学领域的诺贝尔奖获得者的年龄小。另外一项研究发现，诺贝尔物理学奖获得者平均得奖年龄为36岁，而化学奖获得者的平均得奖年龄则为39岁，医学奖获得者则推迟到了41岁。
那么，为什么是35岁之后呢？最为明显的因素就是教育：科学家们从5岁到18岁期间都在读书，18岁到30岁左右拿到学位。然后再经过几年工作的历练，接下来，你就发现了以往未曾被发掘的东西！
与此同时，在大龄阶段取得科学上的突破就不那么常见了，因为当年龄增长的时候，人们耗费在学习上的时间就会变少，技能逐渐变得不那么重要了。
该报告还发现，
与那些必须依赖前辈们的实验和结论来得出研究成果的经验派科学家相比，基于思考方式创新的理论派科学家达到事业巅峰的年龄更小，大概会比前者早4.6年左右。图 3：理论派和经验派诺贝尔奖获得者在生命周期中创造力的差异
这种现象的存在主要有两个原因：首先，理论派科学家无需等待一堆实验和研究成果；其次，也可能是最重要的一点：由于理论派的研究领域较新，这使得他们有机会发现前辈们还没有发现的东西。
NBER文章对此解释称，
大多数重要的概念性理论通常都会彻底摆脱既有模式。在最初接触到一个新的理论，且在它被广泛接纳吸收之前，马上就能识别和鼓励这种创新思维和新理论的能力可能是非常伟大的。不过，有证据表明，天赋完全不会随着年龄的增加而减少。 例如，美国著名诗人Robert Frost和William Carlos Williams超过40%的最好的诗歌都是在他们50岁以后写成的，而保罗·塞尚最为名贵的画作甚至是在他死的那一年诞生的。
当一个经验丰富的人用全新的视角发现了新的问题，天赋似乎就开始熠熠生辉。
ames Murphy, the former frontman of the band LCD Soundsystem, made what he called the biggest mistake of his life at 21, when he turned down a writing job on a sitcom that was about to launch.
+
The sitcom’s name was Seinfeld.
+Instead, he lurched around, working as a bouncer and later a DJ before finally releasing the first LCD Soundsystem album at the not-so-tender age of 35.
+Murphy might have been older than some of his dance-rock peers, but his experience is fairly common among people who experience major creative breakthroughs, according to a new paper from NBER.
+The authors examined the high points of the careers of both great inventors and Nobel-Prize winning scientists, and they found that the late 30s were the sweet spot for strokes of genius:
+
Jones/NBER
Innovators have been peaking slightly later in life as the 20th century has progressed, in part because today’s scientists have more to learn than their predecessors did:
+
Jones/NBER
What’s more, people who excel in abstract fields, like art or physics, tend to be younger than those who win prizes in fields that require more context, like history or medicine. Another 1977 study found that physics Nobel winners were 36 on average when they did their prize-winning work, while chemists were 39 and medical doctors were 41.
+So why the late 30s? The most obvious factor is education: Scientists spend ages 5 through 18 in school, and then ages 18 through 30ish getting their academic degrees. Then a few years of learning on the job, and presto! You dig up an uncertainty principle. Meanwhile, scientific breakthroughs tend to be less common in old age because we invest less in learning as we get older, and our skills gradually become less relevant.
+There’s evidence from the humanities, though, that genius doesn’t decline with age at all. Over 40% of both Robert Frost’s and William Carlos Williams’ best poems were written after the poets turned 50. Paul Cézanne’s highest-priced paintings were made the year he died.
+The NBER paper found that scientists who are theoretical (coming up with new ways of thinking) tend to peak earlier than those who are experimental (coming up with answers based on existing knowledge) by about 4.6 years.
+This happens for two reasons: First, theoretical scientists don’t necessarily have to wait for a bunch of experiments to get completed and published. Second, and perhaps more importantly, being relatively new to their fields allows them to see the holes and fissures that veterans might not.
+
NBER
Here’s how the study’s authors explain it:
+The most important conceptual work typically involve radical departures from existing paradigms, and the ability to identify and appreciate these radical departures may be greatest shortly after initial exposure to a paradigm, before it has been fully assimilated.
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They quote Sigmund Freud in Civilization and its Discontents as writing, “The conceptions I have summarized here I first put forward only tentatively, but in the course of time they have won such a hold over me that I can no longer think in any other way.”
+Genius, it seems, happens when a seasoned mind sees a problem with fresh eyes.
文件：P51，来自NBER的科学研究报告
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AGE AND SCIENTIFIC GENIUS.pdf
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