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Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition): Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Name: Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition): Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Rating: 5 (21 reviews)
Author: Ed Catmull
ISBN: 9780593070109

Ed Catmull · 2014 · 340 pages

As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the world'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 admired-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 Studios-into the story meetings, the postmortems, and the 'Braintrust' sessions where art is born. It is, at heart, a book about how to build and sustain 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.'

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recommended by 21 people

sourced from public statements

Andrej Karpathy
“I appreciate what Ed has tried to do with this book, and I'm a fan of his and Pixar. It was an enjoyable read, but if I was to complain about something it's that I felt the book was trying to be contrarian quite often in a slightly forced way. I ended up noticing a formula repeated many times: In this situation most people would think X... (I didn't, and I wasn't fully sold that most would), but I think Y (I agree and I've heard something similar said several times before). Of course, there was a distribution of reactions to these statements - some I thought were relatively unique and interesting (e.g. negative spaces in art, a well-articulated defense of errors), and some were somewhat forceful (e.g. do not resist change - okay, thanks). I could also notice a persistent undertone of pride for Pixar employees, with statements such as "Do you see now why I love to work here?". Somehow I have slight negative reaction to it. I understand he's very excited and Pixar is his baby, but for me these parts started to feel like PR. There were a few things like this that slightly rubbed me the wrong way as I read through it, but I don't mean to sound too negative and overall enjoyed several interesting parts, Ed's quite obvious desire to understand these topics as well as he can is fun and contagious. I liked the chapter on the Notes day near the end, that sounds like a quite nice idea that I also see a lot of merit in - the idea of recognizing that your employees have brains, and distributing decision making through the ensemble of smart people throughout the company to some degree, and giving them a sense of ownership. A powerful strategy, and this was well articulated. Also, I liked the reflections on Steve Jobs, and the dispelled myths about his personality. I do notice quite consistently that people who knew him best cringe the most when they are asked about popular media coverage about his life. Somewhere between 3 (I liked it) and 4 (I really liked it) /5. I'll round up because it's Ed.”
Brené Brown
“I opened this book seeking answers about the relationships between creativity, vulnerability, and courage. I didn’t expect it to profoundly change the way I work. This is one of the most important leadership books of our time.”↗
Jason Calacanis
“Pixar has made some of the greatest stories of our time, but the author’s personal story, is perhaps the greatest story that has come out of Pixar.”↗
Demis Hassabis
“Brilliant book”↗
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