才20多歲就感覺大腦越來越遲鈍,怎麼辦?大綱

If you believe that great scientists are most creative when they're young, you are missing part of the story.

你要是認爲偉大的科學家年輕時最具有創造力，那麼你可能只說對了一部分。

A new study of winners of the Nobel Prize in economics finds that there are two different life cycles of creativity, one that hits some people early in their career and another that more often strikes later in life.

一項關於歷屆諾貝爾經濟學獎得主的新研究發現，人們有兩段不同的創作生命週期：一段出現在職業發展早期，而另一段往往出現在生命的後期。

In this study, the early peak was found for laureates in their mid-20s and the later peak for those in their mid-50s.

這項研究發現，獲獎者的年齡分佈存在兩個高峯值，即25歲左右和55歲左右。

The research supports previous work by the authors that found similar patterns in the arts and other sciences.

此前在藝術和其它科學領域的研究結果，與此次研究結論相似。

"We believe what we found in this study isn't limited to economics, but could apply to creativity more generally," said Bruce Weinberg, lead author of the study and professor of economics at The Ohio State University.

“我們認爲，研究成果不僅僅侷限於經濟學領域，還可以適用於普遍的創新活動，”該研究的主要作者，俄亥俄州立大學經濟學教授布魯斯·溫伯格說。

"Many people believe that creativity is exclusively associated with youth, but it really depends on what kind of creativity you're talking about."

“很多人以爲，創造力只與年輕人有關。實際上，這取決於何種創造力。”

Weinberg did the study with David Galenson, professor of economics at the University of Chicago. In the study, the Nobel Prize winners who did their most groundbreaking work early in their career tended to be "conceptual" innovators.

溫伯格與芝加哥大學經濟學教授戴維·加倫森合作完成了這項研究。在職業生涯早期階段實現領域突破的諾貝爾獎得主往往是“概念式”創新者。

These type of innovators "think outside the box," challenging conventional wisdom and tend to come up with new ideas suddenly. Conceptual innovators tend to peak early in their careers, before they become immersed in the already accepted theories of the field, Weinberg said.

這一類型的創新者往往不拘一格，靈光乍現。溫伯格說，在職業生涯早期實現巔峯的概念式創新者通常會在完全接受現有理論之前，挑戰傳統智慧。

But there is another kind of creativity, he said, which is found among "experimental" innovators.

但是溫伯格認爲，還有另一種創新路徑，適用於“經驗式”創新者。

These innovators accumulate knowledge through their careers and find groundbreaking ways to analyze, interpret and synthesize that information into new ways of understanding.

這類創新者會不斷在自己的職業生涯中積累知識，綜合過往信息找到全新的角度分析、解釋問題。

The long periods of trial and error required for important experimental innovations make them tend to occur late in a Nobel laureate's career.

重要的實驗創新突破往往需要長期反覆試錯。這一類創新往往出現在諾貝爾獎得主職業生涯的後期。

"Whether you hit your creative peak early or late in your career depends on whether you have a conceptual or experimental approach," Weinberg said.

“你在職業生涯中達到創造力巔峯的早晚取決於你習慣於哪一種研究路徑，概念式還是經驗式，”溫伯格稱。

The researchers took a novel, empirical approach to the study, which involved 31 laureates. They arranged the laureates on a list from the most experimental to most conceptual.

研究人員採用了一種新穎的經驗性研究方法。他們將31位諾貝爾獎得主按照從最“經驗式”到最“概念式”的規則進行排序。

This ranking was based on specific, objective characteristics of the laureates' single most important work that are indicative of a conceptual or experimental approach.

該排序是基於獲獎者的代表作（僅限一個）的具體客觀特徵，表明了其概念式或經驗式研究路徑。

For example, conceptual economists tend to use assumptions, proofs and equations and have a mathematical appendix or introduction to their papers.

例如，概念式經濟學家往往傾向於在論文中使用假設、證明和方程，並附有數學附錄或介紹。

Experimental economists rely on direct inference from facts, so their papers tended to have more references to specific items, such as places, time periods and industries or commodities.

經驗式經濟學家則依賴於事實的直接推論，因此他們的論文往往更多提及特定項目，例如地點、時間、行業或商品。

After classifying the laureates, the researchers determined the age at which each laureate made his most important contribution to economics and could be considered at his creative peak.

在對諾貝爾獎得主進行分類後，研究人員確定了每位獲獎者對經濟學做出最卓越貢獻的年齡。這一時期可被認爲是他的創造巔峯。

Weinberg and Galenson used two different methods to calculate at which age the laureates were cited most often and thus were at the height of their creativity.

溫伯格和加倫森使用兩種方法計算獲獎者文獻最多被引用的年齡，即他們的創造力巔峯期。

The two methods found that conceptual laureates peaked at about either 29 or 25 years of age. Experimental laureates peaked when they were roughly twice as old — at about 57 in one method or the mid-50s in the other.

兩種方法得出的結果是：概念式諾貝爾獎得主在29歲或25歲左右達到創造力巔峯，而經驗式獲獎者在年齡是兩倍左右的時期達到創造力巔峯（57歲或55歲左右）。