Experts who have studied creative accomplishments throughout the life cycle have overarchingly found that creatives peak between the late 30s and early 40s. One 2023 study confirmed this to be true by cross-referencing over a million US inventors with the ages at which they took out patents for their inventions. Most were taken out in the 30s and 40s, with inventions peaking around 40 for men and women. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the same study found that the nature of inventions changed with age; invention attributes related to experience (more backward citations) increased with age, patent attributes related to creativity (forward citations, disruptiveness) fell with age.
When you “peak” might therefore depend on what type of creator you are (rather than, say, your field). As Malcolm Gladwell once wrote (and as recent research from Ohio University concurs) conceptual artists—poets, painters and novelists—are more likely to enjoy creative success when younger, especially if they have more specific goals. Experimental thinkers, who operate through trial and error, may have to wait a little later. Overall, psychologists generally explain that “success” tends to happen in our 30s and 40s because we grow more able to effectively navigate challenges and because we learn to adapt to social norms and accepted ways of thinking, better understanding what will get us that next commission or sale.
As for my own ambition, as an author in their early thirties who has been especially lazy and stifled of late, I could jump in here, and say that while the above might be true, there are other challenges that come with getting older. In my twenties, I felt energetic, worked on my book each morning before my day job, not to mention on weekends—my ambition. I wanted to prove myself, to make a mark. Bafic relates, explaining “dreaming is easy, it costs you nothing: except 13 seconds staring out of the window, but most of the work is the millions of small tasks that you have to do to help you get to that dream.” When I was younger, I also felt more impassioned and emotional, which I channeled into my work, which was more raw and candid. Overall, now I feel more relaxed about creating—almost too relaxed. I am distracted by life admin, house work, relationships. What would I do if I had kids, I sometimes wonder. Would I get even less done?
