Book Review: Creativity Inc by Edwin Catmull

This is the story of the founding of Pixar, its evolution, success, and eventual acquisition with Disney from the Founder Edwin (Ed) Catmull.

I grew up watching Pixar movies and short stories. I was in awe of the realistic Toy Story characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear. The movies like Up, Finding Nemo, Wall-e, and The Bugs Life were my favorite animated movies.

This book provides a deep look at what goes behind the scene to create a great animation movie along with great business insights.

The few things that stayed with me after reading Creativity Inc.

• Ed’s persistence to follow his childhood dream to create the first fully computer-animated film.

• The innovative ways to preserve the culture of candor and openness at Pixar while staying true to their commitment to delivering great stories.

• Ed’s journey of realizing that People are more important than Ideas, and creating a people-focused culture.

• There is no set formula for encouraging Creativity, it is a result of constant thought and effort.

• Great teams are proved to be great in the way they deal with adverse situations.

• Provide inspiration and freedom to people and they will come up with solutions to even complex problems.

The book also is a first-hand account of Steve Jobs’s persona. Ed and John the chief creative officer at Pixar and Disney had known Steve for 26 years they have closely seen the changes in his personality. While his larger-than-life contribution to creating Apple is all known. His journey with Ed and John to make Pixar a success is sometimes overlooked. How Steve agreed to Ed’s condition that Steve will stay out of the Brian Trust meetings at Pixar even while owning a major share. How Steve engaged in a heated discussion with the lead team members on the aspect ratio of a to-be-release film and eventually agreed to the suggestion. How Steve knew the part that he may be good at technology, business, and it’s economics, he has to trust others when it comes to creativity and storytelling. He understood and acknowledged his limitations.

It was fascinating to know how Ed and Steve went into great detail to plan the architecture of the new Pixar HQ so that the place encourages interactions and the flow of creative ideas.

John and Ed in their tribute to Steve said “He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films”.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and will implement many of the learnings I gained.

Thank you Rameet Chwala for suggesting this.

Book#: 190

#LearningsNeverEnds #CouriousTitans #ReadMoreBooks