Pillemer in the NY Times on blooming in later life

April 2, 2015

Karl Pillemer

A recent New York Times article dispels the myth that a person's best creative, professional, or even physical accomplishments are necessarily confined to the younger years. Many are finding success and satisfaction in their 60s and later, perhaps due to experience gained and an openness to try new things in the later stages of life.

BCTR director Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist whose Legacy Project gathers wisdom from elders, is quoted in the article:

We absolutely have to revamp this idea of a linear pattern of accomplishment that ends when you’re 50 or 60. There are simply too many examples of people who bloom late, and it’s the most extraordinary time of their life...There was this feeling of somehow ‘getting it right’ at 50 or 60 or older.

Finding success, well past the age of wunderkind - New York Times