Based on observing this sort of adult in DH's family, my family and, errrrr, the mirror -
First, a fair number of them DO become absent minded professors. Or they take similar sorts of positions in corporate R&D departments.
Many also use their ideas and partner up with a few more organized folks (there's a reason they call those folks EXECUTIVEs) who help them found a business to develop it. Silicon Valley is awash in these folks, and I imagine there are other, similar regions of the country. It's interesting to note that start-ups without good EXECUTIVEs to move things along often flounder despite their brilliant ideas/products.
Second - EF does improve both because the mind develops and because the person escapes from settings where instant compliance with seemingly arbitrary rules puts such a heavy strain on whatever EF skills do exist.
I still recall being flummoxed on a daily basis for the entire year my elementary school teacher insisted kids had to have a color coded system for their subject notebooks. Why was red science? If we were going to have a color for science, surely it should be blue or green. Oh no, I left orange at home and now I don't have my social studies homework. Couldn't I just use one notebook with colored dividers. No, I suppose not... And on and on in my mind, every day. I wasted so much of what little EF I had on trying to follow the color rules (and the many other "organization rules") that I had little left for actual school work.
Anyway, in the inimitable words of Monty Python, "I got better," with better meaning both better EF and a better setting for what I was good at. Most of these kids will, too.
Sue
