Haven’t achieved anything in life?
…not to worry, it’s not too late. There’s a fascinating article in Wired magazine on the work of University of Chicago economics Professor David Galenson. His research tracks the value of famous artists’ paintings as a function of artist’s age when painted. The conclusion? Artists can be classified* into two types: ones that peak early and then decline into old age, and those that steadily gain in productivity throughout their lives, producing their most valuable work right before death.** Of course, the article would have you believe that this trend is a universal feature of human behavior, applying equally as well to indentured servants!
*No variance on the graph shown in Wired. Intelligent comments on the statistical analysis are welcome here.
**Unfortunately, this does not imply that anyone who hasn’t done anything yet in life will be brilliantly successful later on!
That’s really fascinating.
I’ve also seen articles (although I don’t have them on hand) that suggest that in academia, women peak at a much later age than men do. That sort of makes sense, given the gendered roles our culture still has when it comes to things like raising children.
Comment by jo(e) — July 18, 2006 @ 4:53 pm
That’s good news… however since my timimg has always been a bit unreliable, I just hope that it happens before I die. I don’t want a Eureka moment or the mailman bringing me my big IPO payout check just before I ship out.
Comment by SFGary — July 19, 2006 @ 4:31 am
Without any data on relative longevity, it is hard to make sense of this. For example:
“Artists in this group produced their most valuable pieces later in their careers – Willem de Kooning at 43, Mark Rothko at 54,”
How many peoples’ careers end at 50?
Comment by Lab Lemming — July 19, 2006 @ 10:34 am
So would you rather see productivity as a function of fraction of age at death?
Comment by drshellie — July 19, 2006 @ 4:25 pm