Intellectual peak 22-27!

[pmugghc]

Just saw some headlines, some studies how that the intellectual peak of a typical person is between ages 22-27 years. Hmm, seems to apply to our favorite man!

Cheers!

[Rocker]

Hot damn ! Only two years to go... I should do something with my life....

[catman]

I have always had a problem with this claim.

Though a person's energy level may naturally be stronger when he is younger, some of the most brilliant men and women have contributed the genius they are known for later in life...In music, the classical composers are especially this way. They seemed to be like wine and progressed with age.

[Chris Brown]

I have always had a problem with this claim.

Though a person's energy level may naturally be stronger when he is younger, some of the most brilliant men and women have contributed the genius they are known for later in life...In music, the classical composers are especially this way. They seemed to be like wine and progressed with age.

Which is interesting, because pop musicians tend to go the other way.  Not so much in terms of quality even, but younger musicians seem to be more ambitious and take more chances.  Maybe by the time they get older, they've just run out of ideas, I don't know. 

Maybe its just a self-fulfilling thing, but at 25 I already feel like my musical creativity that I had at 19 or 20 is gone.  It sucks.

[runnersdialzero]

Maybe its just a self-fulfilling thing, but at 25 I already feel like my musical creativity that I had at 19 or 20 is gone.  It sucks.

I'm 23 and feel the same way.

It indeed sucks. Very very much :\

[the captain]

While I do think pop--and maybe music (I disagree that "classical" composers tend to be better in their later years, although of course a person can cite examples)--is a young (wo)man's game, I don't agree that the intellectual peak is the mid-20s. And interestingly relevant, I heard a radio story just the other day from some scientist who had come to the opposite conclusion: the brain physically strengthens, allowing for faster thinking, throughout life (up until that late decline that I'd rather not think about quite yet) as long as the person continues exercising it. I think energy may be more behind youthful feats of intellectual strength.

[juggler]

At 25, I took the standardized test for graduate school (GRE) and scored 99th percentile across the board.  At 38, I doubt that I could replicate that now.  My brain just isn't the same machine now that it was 13 years ago.  In some ways, that's a bad thing.  In other ways, not so much.

A lot of hyper-creative folks like Brian Wilson also suffer from mental illnesses like manic depression, anxiety, paranoia, delusional thoughts, etc.   And those things ALSO peak in your mid-20s.  Let's not forget that the same brain that was imagining 'Good Vibrations' and 'Heroes and Villains' was also imagining 'mind gangsters' and bugging devices and that the movie 'Seconds' was a coded message to (and about) him.

[Eric Aniversario]

At 25, I took the standardized test for graduate school (GRE) and scored 99th percentile across the board.  At 38, I doubt that I could replicate that now.  My brain just isn't the same machine now that it was 13 years ago.  In some ways, that's a bad thing.  In other ways, not so much.

I got a perfect 800 on my math SAT, and that was before they made it easier.  That said, I don't know if I could do that 16 or 17 years later.  Sad but true.

[Mr. Cohen]

While all you old fogies are trying to rationalize having passed your intellectual peaks, I have a full year before I'm even 22 and can thus fully justify sitting around doing nothing for the next year while I wait for my intellectual peak. I mean, what's the point in doing anything now if I could just wait a year and do it while I'm at my peak? Anything that I do now could not approach the possibilities of what I could do next year. It's refreshing.

[Fun Is In]

It seems that a lot of creativity and novel thinking peaks in those years, maybe because patterns of thinking are still developing. Once the patterns start to gel and set, originality diminishes.

This type of story has been around for years, applied especially to scientists. Einstein is said to be a perfect example with his great breakthroughs coming young and nothing sensational after that.

Juggler's point about serious mental illness peaking in the same age range is telling also.