Name: Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Rating: 4.397003745318352 (267 reviews)
ISBN: 9780593070109

Ed Catmull and Edwin E. Catmull and Amy Wallace

Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Alexander Gerrese

Frank Enns

“You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.”

Cassandra Tang

The right question is: What cultural forces are getting in the way of creativity?

For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you are getting the story right.

You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offence when they are challenged.

But if every day is sunny and it doesn’t rain, things don’t grow. And if it’s sunny all the time—if, in fact, we don’t ever even have night—all kinds of things don’t happen and the planet dries up. The key is to view conflict as essential, because that’s how we know the best ideas will be tested and survive. You know, it can’t only be sunlight.

The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.

Craft is what we are expected to know; art is the unexpected use of our craft.

Limits force us to rethink how we are working and push us to new heights of creativity.

Creative people must accept that challenges never cease, failure can’t be avoided, and “vision” is often an illusion.

Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear.

Amy Wallace

Edwin E. Catmull

"Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation--into the meetings, postmortems, and 'Braintrust' sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture--but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, 'an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.'"--From publisher.

Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Creativity, Inc

Inspiring read into Pixar's history and best practices behind their biggest films 

Ed Catmull

The co-founder and president of Pixar Animation Studios presents a distillation of the ideas and management principles he has used to develop a the company's successful creative culture, reflecting on how Pixar's commitment to specific values has involved a daily effort. 80,000 first printing.

Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Creativity, Inc.

Timeo Williams

Ed discussed some principles that need to be kept in order for a creative organization to thrive. 

Among them:

Finding a balance between giving time towards the process and meeting deadlines.

Allowing each individual to share ideas.

There is no ownership of ideas. Rather, the philosophy is to instead say ideas were spun out of collaboration with everyone. A focus on the unit, rather than the individual. 

Pixar has a brain trust,in which each movie idea goes through the hangar and is flogged, whipped and buttered towards refinement. 

Honesty is a crucial ingredient in the creative process. There needs to be a healthy dose of freedom to express different view points and attack the feasibility of ideas. This works because individuals look at ideas as no their own, but rather as a means of improving the ideas of the whole.

Ed Catmull Dr

As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the worldâe(tm)s first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream first as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged an early partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later and against all odds, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. Since then, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner twenty-seven Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Now, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques, honed over years, that have made Pixar so widely admiredâe"and so profitable. Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation Studiosâe"into the story meetings, the postmortems, and the âe~Braintrustâe(tm) sessions where art is born. It is, at heart, a book about how to build and sustain a creative cultureâe"but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, âe~an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.âe(tm)

Really long winded, but highly relevant for creative leaders and people managers.

Julian Paul

siegs

Finishing this book take a lot of time, I mean a lot. Reason behind is: I read it like a textbook which class was "How to be a creative and leader?" Ed has a lot of ideas and clarity about creating a safe and working environment. Definitely a must read for business owners and creatives! Loved it. Will revisit in time, hopefully. 

Umit Bulut

Jazelle H

True inspiration. A great and informative read for any leader, creative mind, or just someone looking for a spark of creativity in their lives.

Yuval Shoshan

Colleen

Well, in the process of trying to edit my bookshelves, I apparently deleted my non-fiction shelve along with all the books on it, my reviews of them, and my quotes from them. I won't try to recreate my original review of this book, but I will say that I enjoyed it. It was very interesting how Catmull combined many different business models -such as Deming's- to come up with a custom model for nurturing creativity. Although at times it did seem more like a memoir, it was still fascinating. And there were a lot of really good quotes!

Creative, Inc is a remarkable book that intertwines the fascinating history of Pixar throughout its pages. The authors effortlessly weave in the story of the animation studio's early days, its growth, and its many successes. I particularly enjoyed the parts around Toy Story and how much they worked on the edge of failure. It was interesting to read about the creative process at Pixar and the company's unique approach to storytelling. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of animation and the creative industry as a whole.

Brian Hinton

Anthony

This book was excellent. It's no surprise that Pixar is a stunning company but what goes into cultivating the creativity there is quite astounding. There have been plenty of ups and downs throughout Pixar's life cycle but look at the company that was born out of those struggles!

Ed Catmull is a terrific and engaging author. I don't know much about him at this point but would love to learn more. I'll have to re-listen to his episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast.

Finally, I really enjoyed hearing more about Steve Jobs' role at Pixar. It was briefly touched upon in his bio (which was splendid) but Ed brought another level to that. The words written at the end of the book, about Steve, almost had me crying.

Great book, would recommend!

simple and straightforward information about how to handle a team and also the creativity process surrounding the history of the greatest animation studio. 

Vaishak Kaippanchery

Creativity, Inc. was a book I enjoyed reading. Somewhat long, but it couldn't have been much shorter if all the stories were expected to stay in. It tells the story of Pixar, but more than that, it's a management book that questions traditional management styles in favor of an open manner between the employer and employee. It talks about their workspaces and ethics and how they learned what worked and what didn't. It involves several stories of films they were working on and the problems and solutions that arose, including almost completely losing all of Toy Story 2. A fascinating read if you like business, leadership, and management books.

Matthew Royal

Musings on how to focus an organization on creativity rather than the typical fears and games of most businesses. How to sustain a creative culture as an organization grows. Lots of humility from the head of Pixar, and also a perspective on Steve Jobs that's useful, rather than worshipful or derisive.

Cristian Garcia

One of the most insightful books on business and creativity I have read. The story is sustained on methods, frameworks and freedom at the same time. Really valuable reading.

Keven Wang

I was surprised by the management content for this book about creative cultures.

From Ed Catmull, co-founder (with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) of Pixar Animation Studios, the Academy Award–winning studio behind Inside Out and Toy Story, comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership—sure to appeal to readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath. Fast Company raves that Creativity, Inc. “just might be the most thoughtful management book ever.” Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.” For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. 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 thirteen movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on leadership and management 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. Praise for Creativity, Inc. “Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success.”—Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great “Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. This is a book about breaking it.”—Seth Godin From the Hardcover edition.

Nast

I’m updating my score from 4 to 5, years after I read it. This book was great food for thought and it has kept coming to mind as inspiration for many different challenges.

I guess my initial 4 ⭐️ was in part due to how the book feeds the mythology of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship pantheon.

But despite that, this narration is full of insight and edifying reflections about creativity and collaboration.

Tomek Skupiński

Its a good read, there is more about business approach then Pixar story itself so some people might be disappointed. I really liked it, there are few good points on how to create creative environment.

Mudita

It was an amazing read to help me set some standards and aspirations for future workplaces as a designer. Got a little boring for me halfway through but picked up pace when the part on the Pixar-Disney merger came up.

Nelson Zagalo

Magical. This is the only word I can find to describe what I felt reading this roller-coaster non-fiction book. Amazing, thrilling, emotional, and highly inspiring. This is a book that any lover of animation will adore, more even if you love Pixar movies. 

But more important than that, this is a book that every manager of creative companies should read and re-read. I know this is asking too much, but it should be obligatory in every MBA. It'll not be, because it professes such a different philosophical perspective of what a company is, and what it must be. However people in the business domains should stop and look at the legacy of Pixar, and question why the hell Pixar has not yet made one single flop movie? A book that brings the entire story of Pixar into the open, sharing the entire secret of its success, shows immediately what kind of vision is behind these minds!

Thanks Ed Catmull, thanks for the legacy, and thanks for this amazing book.

Análise do livro em maior profundidade em português: http://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/2...

Les secrets de l'inspiration par le fondateur de PIXAR

Wouter ter Keurs

Immens inspirerend en bomvol praktische tips en uitleg om creatieve bedrijven te laten floreren. Op driekwart bijna te droog, maar dat duurt niet lang. Prachtige voorbeelden uit het oeuvre van Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, Steve Jobs, Pixar én Walt Disney Animation.

Ugis

Difficult to describe. Was interesting, but not too exciting. Some inspiration and some good points, but felt a bit too extended. It was more like an autobiography in context of Pixar. So not really what the title says, nevertheless a good read. [reading time: 11h44m]

Daniel Bower

Pixar is a company synonymous with creativity, so it was enjoyable to read a book that did more than just recount the history of the company — don’t worry there is a loads of great stories too — but also tries to establish what practises had led to their success. 

You can read about many of Ed’s ideas in blog posts online, the brain trusts, post-mortems and dailies in particular have been dissected in quite a lot of detail. But it is worth reading about them first hand and understanding the context with which the ideas where created in.

There is also a moving afterword about Jobs and his impact on the business from people who knew him well. 

Volkan Yorulmaz

Rather than trying to prevent all errors, we should assume, as is almost always the case, that our people’s intentions are good and that they want to solve problems. Give them responsibility, let the mistakes happen, and let people fix them. If there is fear, there is a reason—our job is to find the reason and to remedy it. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the ability to recover.

There are many management tips in this book similar to the one aboe. For more, please read:

https://myhighlightz.blogspot.com/201...

Nadine 

I'd come across the idea of the brain trust before in other management literature about Pixar, and this book gave some background and more about the type of dynamic inside Pixar that made it so special. One of the most interesting sentences in the book are where Steve Jobs was reflecting on how the power of the story and creations would outlast technology that ended up on a scrap heap. I think that's very telling.
What I liked a lot was the combination of visionary and creativity with the imperative of delivering a product at a manageable cost and while keeping relationships intact. Also the idea of candor as opposed to honesty and how to create an environment of tough but respectful and meaningful feedback. There is also a healthy respect for the need for change and how have environment where people could move forward without fearing failure, since there was a lack of personal recrimination.

Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

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