Got an Idea? Maybe You Are an Inventor!

Are you an inventor?  Ever have a good idea for an invention?  There is a renaissance of sorts in American ingenuity with an increasing number of older Americans becoming inventors.  The NY Times ran a story about older inventors on April 17, 2015. More Older Adults Are Becoming Inventors notes this renaissance

Whether as volunteers or for profit, older inventors … are riding a rising tide of American innovation. They are teaming up, joining inventors clubs and getting their products into the marketplace. And older inventors bring valuable skills to their work, many experts say, like worldly wisdom and problem-solving abilities that can give them an advantage over younger inventors.

According to the article, the Baby Boomers are at least part of the catalysts for this surge of older inventors, as the boomers look for products to assist them as they get older. According to one expert quoted in the article, older inventors may have an edge over younger ones, since “[a]n aging brain can see patterns better.”  Before you get out the proverbial drawing board, the article notes that inventions don’t necessarily lead to wealth with less than 5% of inventions making money, not to mention the prototype and startup costs