Optimum Strategies for
Creativity and Longevity
By Sing Lin, Ph.D.
Member of National Council
of
Chinese Institute of Engineers – USA/Greater New York Chapter, and Member
of Board of Director of
National Taiwan University Alumni Association –
Greater New York March 2002
1. Most Creative Years in
the Life
The Nobel Laureate, Dr. Leo Esaki, delivered the
distinguished lecture entitled "Innovation and Evolution: Reflections on a Life
in Research" in the University of Texas at Dallas in the afternoon of Feb. 23,
2002 during the 2002 US National Engineering Week. In this lecture, Dr. Esaki
indicated that most of the great discoveries and innovations by the Nobel
Laureates occurred at the average age of 32 even though the Nobel prizes were
awarded 10 or 20 years afterwards. Furthermore, Dr. Esaki indicated that the
peak creativity of most scientists occurred around the age range of 20 to 30
years. As one gets older, the experience increases but the creativity decreases
steadily with the age.
It is, therefore, very important to stimulate,
encourage and cultivate many young people to get interested in science and
engineering at their young age and to provide the optimal R&D environment
for these very powerful young scientists and engineers to unleash their very
strong creativities during their most precious and creative years around the age
of 32.
2. Longevity Vs. Retirement
Age
The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing,
Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have been “Over Funded”
because many “late retirees” who keep-on working into their old age and retire
late after the age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements.
In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long enough to collect
all their fair shares of pension money such that they leave a lot of
extra-unused money in the pension funds resulting in the over-funded pension
funds.
Dr. Ephrem (Siao Chung) Cheng provided the important results in
the following Table 1 and the associated chart from an actuarial study of life
span vs. age at retirement. The study was based on the number of pension checks
sent to retirees of Boeing Aerospace.
Table 1 – Actuarial Study of
life span vs. age at retirement.
Age at Retirement Average Age
At Death
49.9
86
51.2 85.3
52.5
84.6
53.8
83.9
55.1 83.2
56.4
82.5
57.2
81.4
58.3 80
59.2
78.5
60.1 76.8
61
74.5
62.1 71.8
63.1
69.3
64.1 67.9
65.2
66.8
Table 1
indicates that for people retired at the age of 50, their average life span is
86; whereas for people retired at the age of 65, their average life span is only
66.8. An important conclusion from this study is that for
every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span on
average.
Strategies
for Creativity and Longevity
The Boeing experience is that
employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 18 months, on
average, prior to death. Similarly, the Lockheed experience is that employees
retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 17 months, on average,
prior to death. Dr. David T. Chai indicated that the Bell Labs experience is
similar to those of Boeing and Lockheed based on the casual observation from the
Newsletters of Bell Lab retirees. A retiree from Ford Motor told Dr. Paul
Tien-Lin Ho that the experience from Ford Motor is also similar to those in
Boeing and Lockheed.
The statistics shown in the Pre-Retirement Seminar
in Telcordia (Bellcore) indicates that the average age that Telcordia (Bellcore)
employees start retirement is 57. Therefore, people who retire at the age of 65
or older are minority as compared to the number of early retirees.
The
hard-working late retirees probably put too much stress on their aging
body-and-mind such that they are so stressed out to develop various serious
health problems that forced them to quit and retire. With such long-term
stress-induced serious health problems, they die within two years after they
quit and retire.
On the other hand, people who take early retirements at
the age of 55 tend to live long and well into their 80s and beyond. These
earlier retirees probably are either wealthier or more able to plan and manage
their various aspects of their life, health and career well such that they can
afford to retire early and comfortably.
These early retirees are not
really idling after their early retirements to get old. They still continue
doing some work. But they do the work on the part-time basis at a more leisure
pace so that they do not get too stressed out. Furthermore, they have the luxury
to pick and chose the types of part-time work of real interest to them so that
they can enjoy and love doing that “fun” work at a more leisure pace.
The
late retirees are small in number, tend to die quickly after retirement and
disappear from the population of old people beyond the age of 70. Late retirees,
therefore, have very little weight on the statistical average life expectancy of
the population of “old people” dominated by the early retirees.
Several
years ago, a Japanese friend of mine told me that most Japanese people retire at
the age of 60 or earlier. This may be one of the factors contributing to the
long average life span of Japanese people.
3.
Changing Trend of US Pension Plans
The traditional pension
plans of many major US companies used to place a lot of value on the experience
of long-term older employees by increasing the pension money rapidly and
nonlinearly for long-term employees as their age + service year increases beyond
the threshold of the rule of 75. Most long-term employees cross this critical
threshold at about the age of 55. On the other hand, the early retirees incur
very heavy penalty in
pension and in other associated retiree benefits (e.g.,
employer paid medical insurance, employer paid life insurance, death benefits
for family, etc.) when they retire before they meet the rule of
75.
However, in recent few years, many large US corporations are
switching from their traditional retirement pension plans to the new portable
Cash Balance Plans. The new portable cash balance plans are much more favorable
to the younger employees but are very unfavorable to the long-term older
employees. Some older long-term employees found that when their employers
switched from the traditional pension plans to the cash balance plan, their
pensions were reduced by 30% to 50%.
One of the implications of this
trend towards the new cash balance plan is that the US corporations are now
placing more value on the higher creativity and adaptability of younger
employees and less value on the experience of the older employees. This is
consistent with the accelerating pace of innovations and technology advances.
The creative and dynamic younger employees are better positioned, than the older
employees do, to keep up with the faster pace of technology
advances.
4. Conclusion and
Recommendations
The most precious, creative and innovative period
in your life is the 10-year period around the age of 32. Plan your career path
to use this precious 10-year period wisely and effectively to produce your
greatest achievements in your life.
The pace of innovations and technology
advances is getting faster and faster and is forcing everybody to compete
fiercely at the Internet speed on the information super-highways. The highly
productive and highly efficient workplace in USA is a pressure-cooker and a
high-speed battleground for highly creative and dynamic young people to compete
and to flourish.
However, when you get older, you should plan your career
path and financial matter so that you can retire comfortably at the age of 55 or
earlier to enjoy your long, happy and leisure retirement life into your golden
age of 80s and beyond. In retirement, you can still enjoy some fun work of great
interest to you and of great values to the society and the community, but at a
part-time leisure pace on your own term.
On the other hand, if you are
not able to get out of the pressure-cooker or the high-speed battleground at the
age of 55 and “have” to keep on working very hard until the age of 65 or older
before your retirement, then you probably will die within 18 months of
retirement. By working very hard in the pressure cooker for 10
more |
No comments:
Post a Comment