每次招聘的时候，很多年纪大的人会被淘汰。他们被认为成长性有限，精力不足，无法在工作中有重要贡献。我认为这是一种偏见。特别是面试者本身还没有经历过更大的年纪的工作状态，怎么就能认为年纪大的人无法做出重要的贡献呢？
这篇文章《Don’t give up: Older people can have creative breakthroughs》每个管理者都应该读一读，特别是对年纪大的员工有偏见的人。
本文作者 Albert-László Barabási ，美国东北大学网络科学家，《The Formula: The New Scientific Laws of Success》的作者。
下面我们进入正文：
des of research on creativity: Most scientists published their defining work within two decades of the start of their scientific career. In other words, geniuses and everyday scientists alike cease to be creative by the third decade of their career.
我们调查了数万名科学家的职业生涯，涉及的学科包括物理学、数学、生物学和计算机科学。我们的研究结果证实了几十年来关于创造力的研究：大多数科学家在科学生涯开始后的二十年内发表了他们的重要工作。换句话说，天才和普通科学家在他们职业生涯的第三个十年里都不再有创造力。
When we asked why, however, we stumbled across something unexpected. First, we found that productivity — the number of papers published by an individual — has the same early peak as creativity. We scientists are not only the most creative in the first two decades of our careers; we are more productive as well. This made Roberta and me suspicious about the roots of our creative success: Is it because we are young, or is it because we simply buy more raffle tickets during those early decades?
然而，当我们问为什么，我们偶然发现了一些意想不到的事情。首先，我们发现生产力——个人发表的论文数量——与创造力有着相同的早期高峰。我们的科学家不仅是我们职业生涯前20年最有创造力的，而且我们的生产力也更高。这让罗伯塔和我对我们创造性成功的根源产生了怀疑：是因为我们年轻，还是仅仅因为我们在最初的几十年里买了更多的奖券？
We next arranged every paper the scientists had published in chronological order, asking if the highest impact paper was among the earliest of each person’s career, somewhere in the middle, or perhaps among the last. In other words, we took age and productivity out of the equation, viewing each paper as another attempt at a breakthrough.
接下来，我们按时间顺序排列科学家发表的每一篇论文，询问影响最大的论文是在每个人最早的职业生涯中，是在中间的某个地方，还是在最后一篇中。换句话说，我们把年龄和生产力从等式中去掉，把每一篇论文看作是另一个突破的尝试。
And there lay something unexpected. The highest impact papers were rarely the scientists’ earliest ones. Instead, the biggest hits were completely random: They were just as likely to be a first work as a last one, or anywhere in between.
还有一些意想不到的事情。影响最大的论文很少是科学家最早的论文。相反，最大的点击率是完全随机的：它们和最后一部一样可能是第一部作品，或者两者之间的任何地方。
Our surprising conclusion: Fresh-faced thinkers disproportionately break through not because youth and creativity are intertwined but because they produce more work early in their career. Indeed, 30 years into a scientific career there is a sixfold drop in productivity compared with productivity at any time within the first 20 years. Hence scientists’ early success has little to do with the vibrant ideas they bring to the stodgy establishment. Rather, undeterred by disinterest or failure, young people try again and again.
我们令人惊讶的结论是：新面孔的思想者不成比例地突破，不是因为年轻人和创造力交织在一起，而是因为他们在职业生涯的早期产生了更多的工作。事实上，在科学生涯的30年中，与前20年内任何时候的生产力相比，生产力下降了6倍。因此，科学家们早期的成功与他们的充满活力的想法几乎没有关系。相反，年轻人没有被冷漠或失败所吓倒，而是一次又一次地尝试。
These results are good news for those of us with graying hair. Sure, success can come early, as it did for Frank G. Wilczek, who received the 2004 Nobel in physics for the very first paper he co-authored as a graduate student. But it can also come later, as it did for this year’s Nobel winner in physiology or medicine, Yoshinori Ohsumi, who was 48 when he made his breakthrough. In fact, it can even come very late, as it did for John B. Fenn, a chemist whose Nobel-winning discovery came after Yale shut down his lab when he turned 70, the mandatory retirement age then.
这些结果对我们这些头发灰白的人来说是个好消息。当然，成功可能来得早，正如弗兰克·G·威尔茨克（FrankG.Wilczek）所做的那样，他在2004年获得诺贝尔物理学奖，这是他作为研究生共同撰写的第一篇论文。但也可能在以后发生，就像今年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖得主Yoshinori Ohsumi（48岁时取得突破）所做的那样。事实上，它甚至可能来得很晚，就像约翰·B·芬恩（JohnB.Fenn）所做的那样。约翰·B·芬恩是一位化学家，他的诺贝尔奖获得者，是在耶鲁大学70岁时关闭实验室后发现的，那时他是法定退休年龄。
Equally important, our data show that if you were fortunate enough to have had that coveted early-career breakthrough, there may be more to come. Einstein, despite his age-of-30 admonition, was 59 when he published his finding on quantum entanglement, his most cited work today. And our finding is likely not limited to scientists. Steve Jobs, for example, may have founded Apple at 21, but the company’s most commercially successful innovations — the iMac, the iPhone — came only in his 40s and early 50s.
同样重要的是，我们的数据显示，如果你幸运地拥有了梦寐以求的早年职业突破，那么未来可能还会有更多。尽管爱因斯坦30岁，但他59岁时发表了关于量子纠缠的发现，这是他今天引用最多的著作。我们的发现可能不仅限于科学家。例如，史蒂夫•乔布斯（Steve Jobs）可能在21岁时创立了苹果，但苹果最成功的商业创新——iMac、iPhone——仅仅出现在他40多岁和50多岁的时候。
So if you missed that early spark, don’t despair: as long as you stay with it, success can still be yours.
所以，如果你错过了早期的火花，不要绝望：只要你坚持下去，成功仍然是你的。
