I Can't Think Of A Title

Today's post is about investments. Okay, no. Moving on...

How exactly are the different stages of development deciphered?
Paul Dirac once commented, "A person who has not made his greatest contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so." History is replete with stories of prodigies in both sciences and the arts. These people are renowned in society - but more for their exceptionalism than their ingeniousness.
But it is wise to acknowledge that the world as we know it was not borne of children.

On the road to great achievement, the late bloomer will resemble a failure: while the late bloomer is revising and despairing and changing course; what he or she produces will look like the kind of thing produced by the artist who will never bloom at all. These people are ridiculed at the first attempt, because this is what society does. Society wants instant gratification, always.

Prodigies are easy. They advertise their genius from the get-go. Late bloomers are hard. They require forbearance and a trusting audience. Whenever we find a late bloomer, we can't but wonder how many others like him or her we have thwarted because we prematurely judged their talents. But we also have to accept that there's nothing we can do about it. How can we ever know which of the 'failures' will end up blooming? There isn't an obvious pattern to this.

This begs the inclusion of an age old battle: Education or Experience?
Ingenuity and talent as opposed to wisdom and mastery.

The effects of ageing on cognition, achievement, and creativity is a subject worthy of more research, but perhaps it is also important to note that ordinary late-life contentment is worth more than extraordinary achievement.
Not everyone is destined to be a mathematician.