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Hervé L.'s avatar

Un sujet que je trouve fascinant depuis des années. Une référence qui m'a semblé assez convaincante sur le sujet, les travaux de David Galenson, bien résumés ici : Why Arguing About An Entrepreneur's Age Misses The Point https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhansen/2012/12/04/why-arguing-about-an-entrepreneurs-age-misses-the-point/?sh=312ab22afedf

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Kenny Fraser's avatar

Lateitia

Thought provoking and valuable. I have no doubt your point about lots of this being male centric is valid. I guess I wonder how we can use this way of thinking to help bring both more women and more older people into productive roles in our economy.

Some specifics that occur to me:

The generation effect is largely imposed not real. Its a way of explaining and grouping for analysis not actually a real view of how people think and behave.

Never been very convinced by the 3 kinds of innovation part of Clayton Christensen's thinking. Older people may be more disruptive for two reasons:

1. The more you learn, the less certain you are of anything. So much more prepared to challenge established thinking.

2. Older people may already be secure. They don’t want to bet their gains on disruptive innovation. On the other hand, they are less worried about putting their future path at risk. Remember young people are always told they need to go through stages to be successful. Why would they rip up the path that they have been told is the way to the future?

So much food for thought and so much depends on the individual. The best thing we can do is keep an open mind and keep learning.

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