Pulling all-nighters, working multiple 7 day work weeks, 18 hour days; those are all signs of weakness. But for some reason, some people think it's great and it shows teamwork and loyalty and blah...
It's just a poorly managed/developed project. Plain and simple.
Long days of work are often far more productive for me. It usually takes me a couple of hours to get the entirety of the problem/solution in my head. I might accomplish five or ten times what I would if that 18 hours was split across three days.
That's a different situation than what I am referring to. You're talking more about being in flow. I'm talking about poorly run projects where it becomes a requirement to work long hours and weekends. It simply isn't a sustainable way to work.
The article is about genius, but the strengths you attach to the young here apply more to what I would consider being a good worker drone.
When considering the cases of both Goodenough and Zuckerberg, my takeaway is that when it comes to genius, age is a non-factor.