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A review by lornbr
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Amy Wallace, Ed Catmull
5.0
I was very impressed how creativity, drawing, and storytelling in the case of Pixar, and Software Engineer have in common.
No, I don't think that we need inspiration and stuff to work and a lot of work we do is not a game changer in any matter but that's in true in animation too. Of course, that does not apply to the history/script itself, but even there we have some framework/recipes like the "Hero's Journey".
Talking about coincidences, Edwin Catmull, the book's author, is a friend of Alan Kay they study at the college together and Alan Kay introduce Steve Jobs to Ed
Some quotes from the book
“I believe the best managers acknowledge and make room for what they do not know—not just because humility is a virtue but because until one adopts that mindset, the most striking breakthroughs cannot occur. I believe that managers must loosen the controls, not tighten them. They must accept risk; they must trust the people they work with and strive to clear the path for them; and always, they must pay attention to and engage with anything that creates fear. Moreover, successful leaders embrace the reality that their models may be wrong or incomplete. Only when we admit what we don’t know can we ever hope to learn it.”
“it is not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It is the manager’s job to make it safe to take them.”
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”
“If you aren’t experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.”
“When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless.”
“What is the point of hiring smart people, we asked, if you don’t empower them to fix what’s broken?”
“You don’t have to ask permission to take responsibility.”
“For many people, changing course is also a sign of weakness, tantamount to admitting that you don’t know what you are doing. This strikes me as particularly bizarre—personally, I think the person who can’t change his or her mind is dangerous. Steve Jobs was known for changing his mind instantly in the light of new facts, and I don’t know anyone who thought he was weak.”
“Making the process better, easier, and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we continually work on—but it is not the goal. Making something great is the goal.”
“We start from the presumption that our people are talented and want to contribute. We accept that, without meaning to, our company is stifling that talent in myriad unseen ways. Finally, we try to identify those impediments and fix them.”
“What interests me is the number of people who believe that they have the ability to drive the train and who think that this is the power position—that driving the train is the way to shape their companies’ futures. The truth is, it’s not. Driving the train doesn’t set its course. The real job is laying the track.”
No, I don't think that we need inspiration and stuff to work and a lot of work we do is not a game changer in any matter but that's in true in animation too. Of course, that does not apply to the history/script itself, but even there we have some framework/recipes like the "Hero's Journey".
Talking about coincidences, Edwin Catmull, the book's author, is a friend of Alan Kay they study at the college together and Alan Kay introduce Steve Jobs to Ed
Some quotes from the book
“I believe the best managers acknowledge and make room for what they do not know—not just because humility is a virtue but because until one adopts that mindset, the most striking breakthroughs cannot occur. I believe that managers must loosen the controls, not tighten them. They must accept risk; they must trust the people they work with and strive to clear the path for them; and always, they must pay attention to and engage with anything that creates fear. Moreover, successful leaders embrace the reality that their models may be wrong or incomplete. Only when we admit what we don’t know can we ever hope to learn it.”
“it is not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It is the manager’s job to make it safe to take them.”
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”
“If you aren’t experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.”
“When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless.”
“What is the point of hiring smart people, we asked, if you don’t empower them to fix what’s broken?”
“You don’t have to ask permission to take responsibility.”
“For many people, changing course is also a sign of weakness, tantamount to admitting that you don’t know what you are doing. This strikes me as particularly bizarre—personally, I think the person who can’t change his or her mind is dangerous. Steve Jobs was known for changing his mind instantly in the light of new facts, and I don’t know anyone who thought he was weak.”
“Making the process better, easier, and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we continually work on—but it is not the goal. Making something great is the goal.”
“We start from the presumption that our people are talented and want to contribute. We accept that, without meaning to, our company is stifling that talent in myriad unseen ways. Finally, we try to identify those impediments and fix them.”
“What interests me is the number of people who believe that they have the ability to drive the train and who think that this is the power position—that driving the train is the way to shape their companies’ futures. The truth is, it’s not. Driving the train doesn’t set its course. The real job is laying the track.”