On age and creativity
If a 94 year old can revolutionize battery technology for the second time, what’s your excuse for not being creative? The guy who co-invented the battery in your smartphone, laptop and tablet at age 57 is back at age 94 with a discovery that could turn the energy and automotive industries on their heads. The University of Texas at Austin professor and his team have “filed a patent application on a new kind of battery that, if it works as promised, would be so cheap, lightweight and safe that it would revolutionize electric cars and kill off petroleum-fueled vehicles.” The New York Times’ “To be a genius, think like a 94-year-old” is a data-driven meditation on creativity and age in a youth-obsessed culture.
Because emojis aren’t enough of a curse, Google wants to take the creativity out of drawing. The company has rolled out a new site on which you can sketch approximations of, say, a slice of pizza and have Google turn that into an image of a proper slice. Or a circle with dots on it into a cookie. A box with circles into a car. Try out AutoDraw.