# "Most of the world's geniuses discovered what they would by the time they were 20" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956 "2005-08-07T04:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/21 "2005-08-08T22:23:25Z")
The whole point of this endeavour of mine was to examine what this person had said about these brilliant minds _realizing_ what they would by the time they were 20, but unfortunately, with these short bios, we only see, generally, when these folks _acted_ upon pre-existing ideas. For instance, when did Quentin Tarantino begin piecing together his plan/ideas about the world, career, film? Only an in-depth look at these people would yield such. With that in mind, I have here a list of the age at which each person listed here so far made their first big achievement/whatever, listed next to the age. Then, I’ve averaged out the ages to see what we end up with for the mean age of the innovators. ## Bill Gates- 20 Alltair BASIC Program Paul Allen- 20 ditto Larry Page- 24 Google Sergey Brin- 24 ditto Steven Spielberg- 29 Jaws George Lucas- 28 American Graffiti Quentin Tarantino- 31 Pulp Fiction Kevin Williamson- 30 Scream Linus Torvalds- 22 Linux Michael Dell- 19 Dell computers Augusuc Caesar- 25 took over Rome Warren Buffet- 31 First million dollars Jim Carrey- 30, between Living Color/Ace Ventura Sam Walton- 27 Wal Mart Ralph Lauren- 28 Polo clothing John Rockefeller- 31 President of new Standard Oil William Randolph Hearst- 23 takes over San Francisco Examiner Oprah Winfrey- 32 show Walt Disney- 35 new Disney Productions takes off Ted Turner- 32 begins assembling broadcast system Melnichenko- 21 MDM bank Sergei Popov- 27 coal mines Wong Kwong Yu- 18 store 31 25 25 Howard Stern- 32 national radio Peter Jackson- 26 Bad Taste Will Smith- 22 sitcom 768, which divided by the 29 people =26.5 years old That means 26.5 years old for the first big _achievement_, I should reiterate, not for when they figured out what they would. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/22 "2005-08-09T12:30:05Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Being discovered and being successful is not the same thing. um… the OP didn’t say the geniuses “were discovered”. It says that _they_ discovered what they were going to do, at least in terms of a general field of study. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/23 "2005-08-09T12:32:26Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Oprah Winfrey- 32 show a) I’d quibble about counting her as a genius, partially because b) I remember her as a really, _really_ bad local news reporter on (IIRC) WJZ-13 in Baltimore before getting her show. I mean _unbelievably_ bad. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/24 "2005-08-09T14:09:36Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > I’m paraphrasing something someone told me- that if you look at most of the world’s geniuses/innovators, _most_ of them realized/invented/discovered/achieved what they did b/c they were not yet part of the societal adult world, one that would restrain them with skepticism, pre-established views, etc. On the bright side, it’s, perhaps deservedly, become a cliche that the most brilliant scientists, mathematicians, and computer geeks do their most innovative work before they are thirty. Figuring on the classic “three score and ten” we all get, they look forward to forty years of decreasing relevance. Ah, you just can’t beat being washed-up before your first gray hair to make you feel good all over! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/25 "2005-08-09T20:01:01Z")
How about comedic genius ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic? • Graduated from high school as valedictorian at age 16 • Figured out he was good at writing comedic song lyrics while in college, before he was 20 • Is still doing it more than 20 years later ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/26 "2005-08-09T22:30:31Z")
**Most of the world’s geniuses discovered what they would by the time they were 20"** I think most were a bit taller than 20" when they made their mark. ---
**Author:** ![chemistrydork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@chemistrydork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chemistrydork)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/27 "2005-08-09T23:46:36Z")
There are several mechanisms by which early bloomers may have disproportionate representation among “geniuses”. (1) People who start a project early in life have more years to see their vision flourish than people who start a project late in life. Projects started by older geniuses may fizzle at a higher rate because the older genius succumbs to diseases and maladies associated with old age. (2) People who start a project early in life have more years to reap the financial benefits of their genius, and hence, tend to make better stories, and become more well-known than their corresponding older peers. (3) Older people who show genius late® in life may be associated with companies or other enterprises where they end up not receiving personal recognition for their genius. The company gets a patent and the inventor gets a pat on the back. My personal opinion is that people who innovate creatively do so throughout their lives. The mark of genius isn’t one-time success but a string of successes. (see Watson and Crick of DNA fame) ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/28 "2005-08-10T04:22:42Z")
> [@Phase42](#): > > How about comedic genius ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic? In 1981 he went on tour with his Demented band or whatever after appearing on the tv show, and then the details are hazy (Wikipedia doesn’t have much interest in when people ‘make’ it, unfortunately 😛 ), so I’ll count that as his beginning, which was at 22. Thus bringing our average age for these now 30 folks to: 26.3 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/29 "2005-08-11T14:16:53Z")
Andrew Lloyd Webber–Had his first works published when he was eight, had a working toy theatre where he wrote music and presented plays, wrote Jesus Christ Superstar at 20 and became a self-made millionaire at 21, and managed to maintain control over much of his empire. His father once told Andrew and brother Julian “Only go into music if you can’t find anything else.” Obviously they didn’t listen (Julian is a classical cellist). ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956/30 "2005-08-12T02:49:27Z")
810 (just for my reference) The average age after Webber: just over 26. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-of-the-worlds-geniuses-discovered-what-they-would-by-the-time-they-were-20/315956.md?page=1)