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Surprising Science —

Prime Innovation Years? Middle Age, Not Youth.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalism and the myths of Silicon Valley, the increasing complexity of our technological systems means successful innovation is occurring later in life.
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What’s the Latest Development?

Despite the popular notion that somewhere there is a 20 year-old whose next idea will change everything, successful innovation gets better with age, says new Harvard research. Today, average and median age of the founders of successful U.S. technology businesses (with real revenues) is 39. The study found “twice as many successful founders over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20. So everyone has a shot at success, but age provides a distinct advantage.”

What’s the Big Idea?

As systems become increasingly interconnected, they become more complex. So while a 20-something may grasp social media, he or she will not likely understand the intricacies of nanotechnology or artificial intelligence as well as an older generation. The young, however, do dominate new-era software development “and software will be a key driving force in the convergence of other technologies that are expanding exponentially. So we badly need our young and our older entrepreneurs to develop cross-disciplinary solutions…”

Photo credit: shutterstock.com

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Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
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