In today’s modern world it seems we focus on the young, the next generation for our ideas. Whilst I agree they are our future and we should encourage and pioneer young inventors, is it right to neglect the older generation when it comes to opportunities for championing new inventions?
One great way for any inventor to achieve recognition is through entering their design/product into competitions, and there are many design competitions out there. However, for a 50 something inventor there are very few competitions that don’t deem you ‘too old’ to enter.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that a student competition should be open to any ages, competing against experience professionals with different means and resources. But what does seem unfair is when age limits of up to 40 years are applied. Who decides these age limits? And what message are they sending? Have we dismissed the older generation of inventors? How old is too old to invent?
To use one
of the UK’s greatest inventors, Dyson, as an example, if he had given up after
40 we would not have the world famous bagless vacuum cleaner today and many
more Dyson innovations. He is a prime example that hitting your 40s is no time
to give up but time to use those valuable learnt lessons and continue to turn
your idea into a reality. Aged 46, Dyson
launched the DC01 in Britain in 1993 and it became the best selling vacuum
cleaner ever produced. Now aged 66 he shows no signs of slowing down and the
Dyson Foundation continues to introduce new inventions using his patented technology. In 2006, Dyson launched the Dyson Airblade (a fast hand dryer) and
more recently the Air Multiplier (fan without external blades).Having achieved success, Dyson set up The James Dyson Award, an international student design award running in 18 countries. It is run by the James Dyson Foundation, James Dyson’s charitable trust, as part of its mission to encourage the next generation of design engineers to be creative, challenge and invent. The international winner of the James Dyson award receives £30,000 for themselves and £10,000 for their university. This is fantastic and I am sure Dyson wished someone had offered him such an opportunity when he was starting out. But again, who is going to champion the new innovators of his own generation?
A study carried out by Benjamin Jones at the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows “Over the past century the average age at which individuals produce notable inventions and ideas has increased steadily." In 'Age and Great Invention' (NBER Working Paper No. 11359), Jones considers data on Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Economics over the past 100 years, and on outstanding technological innovations over the same period. Jones suggests that one explanation for this increase in older inventors may be “simply because innovators are living longer. If we accept that raw ability declines over the life cycle while experience increases, then the shift in the distribution may indicate the rising importance of experience over ability. Alternatively, improved health care may spell increased ability and effort at later ages.” [1]
If anyone knows of a design competition for the ‘older inventor’ please, let me know.
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