I read this, and I think it’s far too over-generalizing if not desperate to quantify things otherwise defying quantification.
Citations and auctions make for very limited data sets which could never narrate the larger story of human creativity.
Interesting to see there were no references to poets, writers, or musicians. Or how about programmers? As one, I consider that to be a creative and even an artistic venture at times, even with all its logic and math, which I tend to see as symmetrical, organic, and beautiful.
I’ve coded well over a million lines of code in my lifetime, written thousands of poems, performed and recorded thousands of songs (mostly improvisational), painted, sculpted, used Blender at least as frequently, and I know my best works are always ahead of me despite having experienced various so-called “hot streaks” at various times along the way.
And I know mostly anyone, if given the chance to develop their intellectual and creative talents beyond the basics could easily do that and more.
Which is to say: everyone could be amazing, and not just for a little while, I believe.
We need to transcend the quantifiable, move past self-defeating thinking and bit-driven beliefs.
We must reject society’s repeated attempts to limit our creative and intellectual abilities.
We may choose to become smarter, better artists, musicians, coders, writers, poets, persons - whatever - even as we may have to push through often anachronistically constraining and ageist societal tendencies asserting limitations and self-defeating Warholian “15 minutes of fame” mentalities meant to abridge the potential of individuals.
That does not have to be the case, nor is it ever really so, once you really think about it: it is what you choose to believe and to become at nearly any age.
If you choose to believe your chances of being a great artist have passed, or never arrived, that is an unfortunate choice, something defeatist in both tone and end effect, making it all the more unlikely good or great art would ever be achievable again, until at least new thinking takes root in the mind.
Thank goodness for neuroplasticity!
I think we could use some fresh thinking when faced with such “studies.”
Refuse restrictions on positive human potentials. Renounce reductive reasoning, especially wherever it writes someone off without good reason.
Realize you could and should be amazing, to no particular end, if you really wished to be so and were willing and able to invest in the development of your talents to nurture that reality.
And “amazing” does not have to translate to monetary success or fame. Those were never accurate indicators of any lasting goodness. People can be and are awesome in subtle yet substantial ways.
Never succumb blindly to negators and naysayers and the narrow-minded. Their negativity, even when combined, is really no match for your creative positivity, if you truly realized how powerful it could be when developed and focused with purpose, peace of mind, and passion.
Let nothing or no one (above all, yourself) stand between you and the better whatever you could become.
I believe, ultimately, better individuals can help contribute to a more healthy, compassionate, and collectively creative and peaceful society, a stronger product of abilities acknowledged and mutually respected, potentials more likely to be fulfilled than forsaken, with greater overall self-fulfillment and inner peace, and with artistic and scientific advances as immeasurable as they are inspiring and influential in the betterment of humanity.
I believe this will happen when we individually and then collectively will it to be so.