03 February 2009

People generally get better.

aarpmag1 I’m … umm … sitting somewhere, leafing through AARP Magazine.  There’s a wonderful, down-to-earth interview with Toni Morrison

A bit of it is perfect for the blog.  I convince myself that it’s worth doing something I never do anymore: actually type-in a chunk of a magazine.  (My rule: if I can’t copy and paste, forget it.)

The magazine is carried to my office, the page gets dog-eared, marked up, plopped and propped - and I almost start banging away. 

Then I decide to do something smart. I go to the AARP site and there’s the interview, ready for ethereal snatching

What got me all hot ‘n bothered:

tm Q: Do you find you’ve become more creative as you’ve gotten older? Oh, yes. I’m much, much better with creative things—people generally get better. They just know more.

aarpmagQ: Your mind certainly seems to have stayed fertile. Yes, but what’s really important is humor—the way you see through things. And I don’t mean just “Ho, ho, ho!” but real irony about the diabolical nature of things. If you don’t have that, you just collapse.

I’ve blogged about this a bunch of times:

Old Masters and Young Geniuses

What Kind of Genius Are You?

Baby boomers are smarter than you think

Trust Your Gut

20And there’s this NYT piece:

Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain

Wiser, smarter, funnier, more creative.  Even if only half-true, only partially true - think of all the talent out there not being used in advertising (and hundreds of other creative industries).

Again (and again and again): Diversity = Productivity.

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