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A review by dmaurath
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace
4.0
Only after I finished reading did I discover that this book is 8 years old and not new for 2022 like I had thought. The advice here is still fresh and challenges the status quo. For example, he argues against managing only what you can measure because that assumes everything can be measured, which is simply not true. Not all his advice is great though. Near the end he praises a "Notes Day" process to identify and fix problems. Essentially, it consisted of the entire company getting together to identify problems and then spend a day discussing them. That's far too intensive, time-consuming and is textbook case of reinventing the wheel. Just send a survey. Is an open discussion about entitled employees—the example discussion he used—going to solve anything? Finally he gives the most fair assessment of Steve Jobs, explaining his behavior without excusing it.
Overall, the advice here is sometimes enlightening like a Pixar lamp, while other times derivative like Cars 2 and 3, but on the whole there is some great ideas here especially if you have some experience in companies to relate it to.
Overall, the advice here is sometimes enlightening like a Pixar lamp, while other times derivative like Cars 2 and 3, but on the whole there is some great ideas here especially if you have some experience in companies to relate it to.