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Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity (by David Galenson) Influential to someone whose practices and path to success in en

• ChicagoBoy11 9y ago
  I took his class in college and it is one of the few decisions I completely regret in life. The point he makes in the book is in fact very interesting (essentially, the lifepaths of creative individuals fall into two discernible categories: innovators, whose main contributions are early in the career and slowly fade, and those who slowly master a craft, whose most noteworthy contributions come later in life), and the techniques he marshals to study it in different context noteworthy, but it would have made for a great two week class. Instead, Galenson spent the entire time basically assigning everything he ever wrote -- which made the same point over, and over, and over again -- and constantly berated students who tried to respectfully dialogue with him. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post, but every mention I see of him just elicits this visceral reaction in me and I just needed to get it off my chest.