Creative Aging
There is still no clear correlation between age and creativity, as theories vary. Most are generalizations that will not withstand scrutiny. It was once suggested that creativity peaks in the third decade of life and less than 10% of all great contributions are made by anyone over 60. But this is based on the definition of a "great contribution" as many great works are executed late in life.
In general, the number of significant works plateaus between the ages of 30 and 70, though there are exceptions. Linus Pauling, for example, published twice as many papers between age 70 and 90 than in any preceding 20-year period. Verdi's "Falstaff," considered by many to be his greatest opera, was written when he was eighty. Ben Franklin invented the bifocal lens at 78. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim museum at age 91.
Very often, a creative wins acclaim in his twenties or thirties, and there is the tendency to assume that his first notable work was his greatest achievement - but in many instances the early work of a genius creator is less perfect than his later efforts: it's just that once he has proven himself, people are less impressed when he surpasses the initial achievement that won acclaim.
What Changes with Age?
One question in the author's interviews with creatives asked about the major changes in the past two or three decades of their lives.
In general, respondents didn't remark much difference between their fifties/sixties and seventies/eighties. None felt impaired by age, or that their work had suffered from physical and mental degradation. And in terms of output, there was little difference attributable to age.
In fact, complaints about physical degradation were "almost entirely absent" and most had a positive attitude about their health and energy. Remarks that reflected an attitude of "better with age" were almost twice as frequent as "worse with age." Not a single person had a negative attitude about their health and energy - they were realistic about their specific impediments and degradations but did not see them as significant obstacles to their work.
In asking about aging, responses general fell into four basic categories: changes in physical and mental capacities, habits and personality, relationships with the field, and relationships with domains. Each category has positive and negative remarks:
Physical and Cognitive Capacities
Of course, the most common changes with age are those that deal with a person's ability to perform physically or mentally. It's generally accepted that the body declines through middle age and the mind declines at advanced age. But there were also a number of positive remarks.
Fluid intelligence, the ability to respond quickly and accurately, remains largely stable through life. This is the kind of intelligence tat is evaluated by IQ tests and memory tests. For most people, these abilities peak in the teens or twenties, remain largely stable for most of life, and decline rapidly after age seventy.
Crystallize intelligence, which is dependent on the amount of knowledge a person has, accumulates through life: learning and experience increase this intelligence, and it tends to increase over time, even into the ninth decade of life. We are constantly gaining more knowledge, and only a severe neurological disorder can erase or degrade this information.
Physically, the most common complaint is a decline in energy and motivation to undertake activities. Naturally, this degrades the performance of tasks that have a strong physical component - though for most creatives, their work is more mental that physical. The most common remark is a limitation of the ability to travel due to tiredness - a creative person in the peak of their career may travel quite frequently, but in later life they tend to become more landlocked, preferring to stay at home and focus on a few things rather than gadding about trying to do many. And their ability to cram - to work for days on end without sufficient food or rest, is certainly diminished.
A few scientists mention that they work more slowly and cautiously, recognizing that they are losing finesse at some of the more basic skills (such as calculating equations) - though some wonder if they are making more mistakes than before, or are simply smart and humble enough to notice mistakes they might once have ignored. There is also the sense that "slower and more cautious" is a benefit rather than a detriment: they are able to avoid errors and notice more details.
Habits and Personality
About a quarter of respondents reported issues of discipline and attitude, though the positive remarks were nearly double the negative ones.
Negative outcomes were largely feeling pressured and not having enough time as the result of overcommitment. Other problems included increasing impatience and a sense of guild for neglecting health and fitness.
Positive outcomes featured reduced anxiety, feeling less obsessive, and having the confidence to take risks. Having achieved a significant success, creatives tend to trust their instincts and worry less about failure or obstacles. Obstacles, setbacks, and failures seem less threatening.
Creatives, like most people, tend to learn from mistakes and criticism of their work. Their enthusiasm is "tempered" by the realization that things can go wrong, balanced by the sense that no failure is absolute.
Overcommitment, mentioned as a negative outcome, is also a problem that many learn to mitigate over time: they recognize their capacity, and prioritize the various needs for their time and attention, though even those who have learned to cope with increasing demand feel they have not completely mastered time management.
He notes a gender difference: men and women noted an equal proportion of negative outcomes, but women reported twice as many positive outcomes than men. They were more likely to mention feeling fewer internal pressures and doubts in their own abilities.
Relationship to the Field
About a quarter of responses mentioned changes in relationships with colleagues, students, and institutions. Men in particular feel the sense of being disconnected after their formal retirement from institutions, and have an acute sense of a decrease in their prestige and power.
Others merely report changes in their relationship to the field: while they are no longer active in the profession, they tend to various supporting tasks (teaching, editing publications, consulting, working independently, etc.) and remain connected in a less time-consuming but more focused manner.
Relationship to the Domain
The last significant category of responses considers the evolution in the acquisition of knowledge. Most responses were entirely positive: while we can lose physical energy and cognitive skills in the later years, the potential to increase knowledge never does - so even late in life, when much knowledge has been accumulated, there is always more to be learned.
Some individuals discover a broader set of possibilities within their domain whereas others tend to focus on a specific but unexplored area. Still others branch into new areas based on their past work. A very few leap into an entirely unrelated domain and begin afresh.
Where a domain is limited, there is a greater likelihood of ennui, and branching off into related disciplines. Where a domain is broad, there is greater likelihood of expanding or focusing within the domain to find new areas where there is great potential for exploration.
It's suggested that this may happen at any point in life, not just old age, as it is more determined by their experience of the domain and the parameters of the domain itself.
Always One More Peak
Most creative work is not dependent on the physical abilities that degrade with age, and as such they can continue their work late into life. The analogy is made to a mountain climber who, upon reaching one summit, always sees one more peak to attempt.
There is very little sense of resting on one's laurels - past success is work that is completed, and nothing more need be done. It is always the work that has not been completed that seems more engaging.
Even those who had formally retired from their professions find great opportunity in being "idle." It gives them time to explore ideas and "fool around" with things that once seemed less important. Many work on organizing and publishing their work, others continue to study and research. Having no formal agenda, they can be more devoted to exploring ideas that seemed unprofitable, or which seem to have no commercial merit at all.
Sources of Meaning
A common psychological need that surfaces late in life is the search for integrity - reflecting on the events of one's life and searching for meaning. It is an attempt to make a consistent story of one's own life and to become reconciled to the approaching end of life.
It was not the purpose of his study to question whether and to what extent creatives were able to piece together a sense of integrity, but it did seem to be a theme in the responses.
Unsurprisingly, most creatives found integrity in their work, and about 70% of respondents mentioned their professional accomplishments as being their proudest achievements. Among the remainder, the most common answer was their family. He mentions Freud's suggestion that happiness is "love and work," though he apparently got the order wrong.
The majority of those who cited work as their main source of pride spoke primarily about extrinsic reasons: the recognition and renown they received from their accomplishments rather than the intrinsic work of achieving them. Though it's conceded that asking what a person is "proud of" may have skewed the answer toward achievements, as the struggle is meaningless unless the goal is accomplished. Few expressed pride in hard work that came to nothing, though some described the pursuit of goals as the thrill of the chase, and their accomplishment an ending to a period of engagement.
He mentions a pronounced skew regarding gender: not one of the women interviewed mentioned the intrinsic rewards of work" all were focused on the extrinsic rewards of their contributions. He speculates this is likely because women receive less recognition then men, and it means more to them when they are recognized.
Facing the Infinite
Most older respondents were still actively involved with projects that reflected the main themes of their lives, but often they showed interest in larger issues such as politics, human welfare, the environment, and "the future of the universe."
None of them had embraced religious faith, nor expressed much fear of death. Those who had strong religious foundations early in life continued in their beliefs, but even within this group "ritualized faith" was entirely absent.
In general, spirituality is not common among creatives, though there are notable exceptions. One interviewee expressed that religion is about the sense of awe at things that are not understood, whereas creativity is a quest for understanding. The person who encounters something or some idea he doesn't understand is awestruck by it, but the person who created that thing or explore the idea is not, because it is his own work and he understands how it was created.
Creatives do have the humility that comes from accepting one's place in a larger context - but this tends to be a less mystical contest. Their ideas and their work are a small part of a larger domain, they are one person in a global society, and they live for a brief moment in history. Their creations, while seemingly quite large, are dwarfed in such a context.
Particularly in advanced age, creatives have this sense of the boarder context and the limited influence of their accomplishments in the grander scheme. A common theme is recognizing that the work they have done is often in pursuit of a goal, rather than considering how their product would be of use to the greater society. This may express itself as a frustration that their work has not been as widely recognized or applied as they sense it should be, or it may express itself as an attempt to promote their work so that it is more widely recognized or applied.
That is to say that in later life, a person comes to realize that "a well-lived life is not so much about success, but ... that our existence is linked in a meaningful way to the rest of the universe."
(EN: I have the sense here that this is generative: their work is their legacy and in order to be sustained it must be contextualized. So my sense is that this interest in the broader context is an attempt to avoid being ignored or forgotten, or never noticed, in order to be secure in the idea that their contribution will outlive them.)