I'm wondering where that "age-to-creativity curve" came from. Because if that's accurate, I'm only on the very left edge and very low in productivity at the moment, but it'll be going sharply up as I approach 26.
I think the graph is explaining how the brain ages and how this maturity affects productivity. As you approach and pass 26 the average brain is fully grown(?) and you're neurons are firing on all cylinders. As you approach 40 your brain is still firing just fine, but with the added benefit of learned behaviors and memories. You are at the peak of your creative potential. Finally as you age into your 60s you are "squeezing the creativity out of the neural networks established over your initial career and are not likely to develop enough strong new brain connections to generate as many innovative ideas." That's the way I understood it at least. You've got to seize the moment while you can.As we age, we forge a very extensive network of connections established through a lifetime of experiences, thoughts, feelings, actions, and memories. We are subject to who we have been. It is difficult, if not impossible, to generate new, creative thoughts, because we don’t develop a new set of neural connections that can supersede the existing network.
As a young person, I definitely feel this. There's so much that older people do that I could never manage, simply because I don't have that many experiences. It always weirds me out a little bit when an adult talks for like an hour just riffing on one subject, mostly unprepared, until I remind myself that they've had a lot more time than I have to acquire a.) experiences that make for entertaining anecdotes and b.) knowledge to support whatever point they're making.