MENTAL PRODUCTIVITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21386, 14 July 1931, Page 7

MENTAL PRODUCTIVITY

MOST FAVOURABLE AGES

STATISTICAL EXAMINATION.

LONDON, June 30,

Men do not become mentally productive until they reach the average age of 28, and humorists are not really humorous until they are 32, Sir James principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland, said in an address to St. Andrew’s graduates. Sir James described the results of a statistical examination of the ages at which intellectual productiveness began. He said divines blossomed • prematurely with artists, having an initial productive age of 24. Physicians, physicists and poets blossomed out at 20, _ and naturalists at an average of 27. , “ A crowded group, including historians, mathematicians, novelists and statesmen, do not develop their special qualities until they are .28,” said Sir James, “and philosophers and reformers develop even later. “Chemists and physicists, being the sprinters in life’s race, attain their best work at 41. Divines reach their top speed at 50, and physicians, surgeons, and statesmen work best at 52. Once a man reaches his highest point he can continue to produce work equal to his best for nearly 20 years.”