Old masters  

This book on the distinct creative processes of young geniuses and old masters reminds me of an old generalization about poets and novelists -- namely that poets usually do their best work when they're still young, while novelists excel in old age. That story fits nicely into Galenson's framework (as described in the Amazon synopsis) of revolutionaries and successive approximators if you think about the lyric/narrative distinction as formal/elaborative or metaphoric/metonymic. [via Marginal Revolution]