Could a 40-year-old have invented Twitter?

[Pat Coyle]

Jack Dorsey is an American software architect and businessperson best known as the creator of Twitter.[3] BusinessWeek called him one of technology's "best and brightest".[4] MIT's Technology Review named him to the TR35, an outstanding innovator under the age of 35. His three guiding principles, which are shared by the whole company and through its culture, are simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship

Perhaps not surprisingly, Twitter's user interface was designed by a 21-year-old, Vitor Lourenco

Even as Twitter continues its meteoric rise, many of us old foggies are having trouble conceiving why would anyone want to use such a tool? This got us wondering...is there a such a thing as a design generation? Are applications like Twitter, which flow out of young, wired brains, so radically different from what came before that those of us who think like 40 or 50 or 60 year olds simply could not have conceived them? Are these young designers simply unencumbered by the burden of historical knowledge? Are they blessed to not know what they don't know?

Could a 40-year-old have invented Twitter? Share your thoughts here

[Cissi Sherlock]

Yes, a 40 year old could have invented Twitter!

I do believe that this individual would have to be an open-minded, forward thinker. But it could be done!

I have found many instances in the workplace where older workers are abound with ideas, just as the younger players are. And, if armed with the proper information, one can create to one's hearts content no matter what the age. The problem with most 40+ year olds is that they don't have the time, energy or enthusiam to absorb all that is needed to tap into the innovator within. With bills, family and all other factors of life that come with adulthood, innovation becomes stiffled and lost to more pertinent matters of life.

I know that my mind is constantly flowing. I know I have solved the ills of the world with one solitary sitting. I am always saying, jokingly, that no one consulted me! I know that when given an idea, I take it to the inth degree. I also know that I just don't have the time, and that most of the time other matters of life zap my energy. But my will to create and innovate is never gone.

I would have to be DEAD!

I am 54.

[Pat Coyle]

I hear what you're saying, Cissi. But I'm not sure that Twitter had as much to do with "being armed with information," as being unencumbered by too much historical data. In other words, younger people don't necessarily know that something can't be done...so they just do it.

What I'm trying to get at with this question is whether or not design is a "generational" think the same way music seems to be a generational thing. When rock and roll burst on the scene, for example, the older generation just didn't get it...I feel like application design is similar, which is why I wonder if older folks (like you and me) would ever THINK of Twitter.

[Kevin Hood]

I think I have been wondering the same thing as you. I've wondered if I could even think of the "next big thing" in my ripe old age of 34, and if I did . . . would I have the gumption to just do it, and the motivation to market it? I'd like to think so, but my knees are starting to hurt when I sit for a while. To answer your latest question, I think age does affect what you can come up with and if you follow through with the idea, but there are some older geeks or geniuses that could still get it done. That will be two cents, or does it work the other way...

[Sage McGreen]

At 21, Thomas Edison invented and patented the electric vote recorder. At 25 he invented the motograph and automatic telegraph system, plus the duplex and multiplex telegraph systems. It wasn't until age 32, that he successfully perfected the light bulb. Practice makes perfect.

The 21 year old Vitor Lourenco certainly had teachers who were older. I think we all "share" the ideas toward our advancements. Yes, kids that learn to use tools during childhood are highly skilled. I don't question or compare my skill level with my children or grandchildren. We all learn together and share. In a house full of early and late adopters of technology it isn't a competition, unless its guitar hero and I rock!

It's true that certain personalities use tools to compete, while others use them to nurture. Is the question about competition or genius?

[David Bagdade]

The late great Douglas Adams had three rules about technology:

1. Any technology that exists when you are born is part of the natural order of things;
2. Any technology that comes into being between the time you are 15 and 35 is exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it;
3. Any technology that is invented after you are 35 is against the natural order of things.

[Cissi Sherlock]

I am a outside the box thinker and much to my chagrin, many people my age age are comfortable inside the box. They have lounge chairs, beers, wide-screen TV's and binoculars to see what is going on outside the box.

I get stares and frowns all the time because I seem to go against the norm (Thanks, David!). But, I also think that my ability to be open-minded and the fact that I have not put my imagination to rest keeps me alive and well far beyond hat of my contemporaries.

People my age become complacent and tired for many reasons. What God's has in store for me right now just does not fit into that box!

I am just wondering who other is my age group feels.

[Jennifer Padgett]

You have to be kidding me? Are younger people more advanced in thinking outside the box ... possibly, but as we all know everyone is different. There are many elders who have been around long enough to think up things that the younger generation would never consider. Maybe someone younger can come up with the original idea, but cannot execute the product thru to completion. Am I saying this because I am over 40 possibly, but I can say without a doubt that 3rd world children benefit in many ways from their elders. Americans just don't have the time or patients to listen to their knowledge, which most of the time means thinking things thru, not just rushing things thru.

[Jeremy Houchens]

Yes, a 40 year old could have invented Twitter.

Technologies are getting easier to use, so creating applications like Twitter may be easier. There have been many great unheralded accomplishments in computing over the years that have led to where we are now. What about the guy/girl that drafted http, or tcp/ip, or the persons that wrote MySQL or wrote the Apache server? Many pieces needed to be created before Twitter. I'm not sure how old the creators were, but the general public was not aware of their successes.

Maybe people just pay more attention to computing than they did 25 years ago.

As a side note... Marc Andreesen, the guy that build this platform everyone on SI is using... in his 30's almost 40.
(He's in that computing space, he knows how to build things.) On the flip side... I know very talented 20 something programmers that would NOT have created such a simple app as Twitter.

[Kevin Pastore]

Let's look at this from another angle. I don't believe Twitter has as much to do with how people think about creating technology, but rather how they think about social interaction. Most people over the age of 30 grew up with rudimentary computers, cell phones, etc... Those under 30 have known advanced technology all of their life. What that has caused is a difference in the way they interact with each other.

I am 35. I work in computers - mainly in the creation of community marketing types of web sites -- home owners associations, not-for-profits, etc... where communication with groups is the goal. Yet I would never have conceived of communicating through short bursts of information via a computer or cell phone because it is not how I learned to communicate. It took me longer to start texting because I preferred the personal nature of a phone call. I didn't grow up blogging because those of us over a certain age did not (and still don't) believe in sharing our daily lives openly with the world as our audience.

So, for a 40 year old to invent Twitter, he/she would had to have been able to relearn how they communicate with the world at large. That, I think, is why it would have been extremely unlikely.

[Cissi Sherlock]

Kevin,

Are you saying we (those over 40) can't see the bigger picture or reconfigure our thinking to fit our technological environment?

[Kevin Pastore]

There was an interesting study a doctor friend of mine showed me. Kids who grew up reading on computer screens showed different brain wave patterns (it was a totally different part of the brain that was active) than did adults who learned to read from printed materials. It's not a matter of reconfiguring our thinking. It's that the patterns that were ingrained upon their brains and the way they work are biologically different than ours. We adults have to construct the behavior over our old brain patterns, whereas younger people think that way 'naturally.'

I think this applies in the way we behave socially, as well. There is a certain amount of behavioral conditioning that is inherent to younger people than it is to us.

[Cissi Sherlock]

When you put naturally in quotations, you implied that it is learned behavior, as well. the children are (were) conditioned because of their environment.

I don; have any reports to cite, but i do have personal experience.

I speak for and of those who perform beyond the norm as I do. But of course, I tested genius IQ when I was a pre-teen and got dumber as I grew older! (It's a joke, but it's true!). I had to recondition myself to see outside the box and raised my children to be abstract thinkers as well.

My 16 year-old beat a children's video games at the age of one. People would come to the house to watch he play! As s sophomore last year she got an "A" in physics over a classroom full of seniors. My son is sought after in the virtual world for programming, gaming and anime. I can't do all that because computers were not my thing. But I do create. And, I do think outside the box. And, for what I do, I am an ace and they can't do it the way I do. Don't discount us old folks!

As far a practical experience goes, I feel we all are capable of contributing to the fullest extent, for whatever the reason.

By the way, I can conceive of the difference in brainwave patterns for those children who grew up on computer screens. I see it in my children. Thanks for the input.