Book Sips #15 — ‘Creativity Inc’ by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
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This book is a joy from the first page to the last. I have learned so much by reading about the life of Ed Catmull and how he founded and led Pixar. Since I’m a big Disney and movie fan I was also super interested in how they not only shot new animated pictures but also how he and his team disrupted an entire industry. I find it really interesting how close making a movie and building a digital product in the end are and how the so-called “braintrust” meeting can be adapted for the digital space to build better products.
Buy it here: https://thepmlibrary.com/books/creativity-inc/
A sip: “It is natural for people to fear that such an inherently critical environment will feel threatening and unpleasant, like a trip to the dentist. The key is to look at the viewpoints being offered, in any successful feedback group, as additive, not competitive. A competitive approach measures other ideas against your own, turning the discussion into a debate to be won or lost. An additive approach, on the other hand, starts with the understanding that each participant contributes something (even if it’s only an idea that fuels the discussion — and ultimately doesn’t work). The Braintrust is valuable because it broadens your perspective, allowing you to peer — at least briefly — through others’ eyes.”
Creativity Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
Why read
As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a PhD student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success — and in the 13 movies that followed — was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as:
- Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.
- If you don’t strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill-prepared to lead.
- It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
- The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.
- A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.
- Do not assume that general agreement will lead to change — it takes substantial energy to move a group, even when all are on board.
368 pages, Random House 2014
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