A new edition of Creativity, Inc.
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull looks at the "unseen forces" inhibiting innovation
Ed Catmull, one of the smartest people I've ever known, is out with a new edition of his brilliant book "Creativity, Inc.," one of the best and most unsung books about creativity and management I've ever read.
As a young man, Ed had a dream to be an animator and an artist. When he learned that he lacked the natural talent to do hand-drawn animation he turned to his other passion-- physics, and then computer science. That pivot eventually drove a desire within him to make a very famous, very early computer-generated movie-- an animation of his left hand.
He nurtured his dream as a PhD student in the 1970s at the University of Utah, where many computer graphics pioneers got their start. He eventually forged a partnership with STAR WARS creator George Lucas, an alliance that led to his founding of Pixar Animation Studios with Steve Jobs, John Lasseter and Alvy Ray Smith in 1986. Nine years later, Pixar released TOY STORY-- the first feature-length film made entirely on computers. And it changed animation forever.
Under their leadership Pixar went on to win more than 30 Academy Awards for animated filmmaking. When the Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 for a little over $7 billion, Ed Catmull became not only the president and CEO of Pixar, but the president and CEO of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Thus, through his chosen route of physics and computer science, Ed Catmull realized his dream to be a Disney animator.
In "Creativity, Inc." he displays an exceptional ability to reveal the essence of creativity as practiced by his teams at Pixar and Disney.
The book's subtitle is quite revealing-- "Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration." Perhaps not what you expected from the man whose studios have redefined the art of making award-winning animated films that audiences love all over the world.
I interviewed Ed for 90 minutes at the Computer History Museum when the first edition of "Creativity, Inc.," was released, and I learned why he believes seeing "the unseen" is such an important part of the creative process
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