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Pixar films don't get finished, they just get released
- chops 16y agoThat's just about the coolest response to a letter one could hope for - the kinda thing you frame and show your friends (or in this case, highlight on a blog). Handwritten is awesome as it is, but the little sketches give it such a great personal touch. Very classy.
- stralep 16y agoOnly problem with framing: It's two-sided :) (It looks to me) It is really nice letter indeed.
- mikeleeorg 16y agoHe's just inspired me to add a little sketch to my next handwritten thank you note. It's definitely a lost art. Cheers to him for giving it a delightful & personal twist.
- iman 16y agoHere's another great letter of similar style by the creator of ren and stimpy: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/your-pal-john-k.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/your-pal-john-k.html (I like how the pixar guy said that it's all about having a good story, while the ren & stimpy guy says that good drawing is more important than the story)
- Psyonic 16y agoI realize this isn't proof of anything, but Pixar is a hell of a lot more successful than Ren & Stimpy. Perhaps that means something.
- cakesy 16y agoPixar targets the lowest common denominator, and make movies (I am not insulting them, their movies are amazing, and also target an intelligent audience). Ren & Stimpy creators made TV shows, and targeted a niche or clever teens who enjoy being grossed out.
- aohtsab 16y agoI don't think either's success can be compared accurately — one is a behemoth of a company and the other operates on a much, much smaller scale. Besides, Ren & Stimpy did garner a sizeable cult following (not including myself) — and quantifying interest in a cult classic isn't as simple as tracking purchases. Perhaps a better comparison would be Pixar vs. Nickelodeon.
- PinkSweater 16y agoI just totally shit my pants
- PinkSweater 16y agoOh god it smells. Ahhhhhh.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- PinkSweater 16y agoWhy the downvote? Explain please.
- hugh3 16y agoTroll somewhere else, dude. Here you'll just marginally annoy people for a few minutes, then your account will be deleted. A poor use of your time, really.
- hugh3 16y agoI must admit I was wrong -- the account still hasn't been deleted. Interestingly it has -112 karma, though, which is far less than the sum of the karma scores on all its comments. Bug?
- cynicalkane 16y agoRight now, posts with lower than -4 karma are displayed as -4. Before that, there was a -4 floor on negative karma for a post. Before that, there was no floor. I think the current solution is intended to be best of both worlds.
- mlinsey 16y agoI don't see a downvote button on -4 comments, so doesn't that mean there is still a floor? Or do I not have enough karma? (~1100 now)
- petercooper 16y agoIt is showing that Pixar shares Steve Jobs with Apple. "Great artists ship." Quite!
- qohen 16y agoThe quote is: "Real artists ship". E.g. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Pirate_Flag.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Pirate_Flag.txt
- petercooper 16y agoYou're right, and I really knew that, I say now as I look back at my post with a puzzled expression.. thanks! :-)
- JeanPierre 16y agoWhen I saw this title, I was sure I've seen a statement like that before. I looked it up, and true enough, Paul Graham wrote this in his essay "Design and Research": "Indeed, there is even a saying among painters: 'A painting is never finished, you just stop working on it.' This idea will be familiar to anyone who has worked on software."
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago>"Indeed, there is even a saying among painters: This is true of many artists, but certainly not all. I know of an artist that showed the same piece (a painting) in 4 shows at different stages of development, I kinda liked that, particularly as she was still putting paint in 5 minutes before the show I was at was to open.
- nostrademons 16y agoMy boss was giving a retrospective on one of our projects, and included a slide that was headlined, "Design expands to fill all available time." He and our product manager got into an argument over whether that was really true or not, and various tweaks to the wording that would make it true if not. The argument ended when I pointed out that the fact that we'd been arguing over it for an hour was a pretty good indication that it was correct, and that the presentation was in five minutes so he better decide one way or another soon.
- fix3r 16y agoMusicians and recording engineers have the same saying. s/painting/mix
- gamache 16y agoA manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the program on which he was working. ``It will be finished tomorrow,'' the programmer promptly replied. ``I think you are being unrealistic,'' said the manager, ``Truthfully, how long will it take?'' The programmer thought for a moment. ``I have some features that I wish to add. This will take at least two weeks,'' he finally said. ``Even that is too much to expect,'' insisted the manager, ``I will be satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete.'' The programmer agreed to this. Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his retirement luncheon, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal. He had been programming all night. The Tao of Programming, 5.2 http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html
- huhtenberg 16y agoWhen I was just starting in the software development business, I worked under a project manager who liked to say - "in order to get a realistic estimate of a completion time, take what the programmer said, multiply by two and shift to the next time period" meaning that 1 day translates to 2 weeks, 2 weeks to 4 months, etc. Cynical, but accurate :)
- tjmaxal 16y agoThis just makes me smile. It's nice to see good things being done by good people.
- ajj 16y agoBeing a PhD student, that touches a sensitive nerve. They say a dissertation is never finished, its abandoned!
- johnswamps 16y agoThe saying is much older than that. "Art is never finished, only abandoned" seems to be widely attributed to de Vinci and "A poem is never finished, only abandoned" to Paul Valery.
- michaelcampbell 16y agoSo it's like all software, then...
- PinkSweater 16y agoNo. It's not. Software get's fucking released. That's why we have version numbers.
- JMiao 16y agocareful with the apostrophes, now.
- Splines 16y agoGiven the other comments in this thread, it's like any other creative work, though I'd argue that the creativity in software is not always visible on the surface (granted, IANAA).
- far33d 16y agoPete Docter is one of the nicest guys alive. I am in no way surprised that he took the time to write back a handwritten note.
- leej 16y agoi think software analogy is not quite right. after sw is released next iterations or "sequels" are generally refinement of the first. movies are not.
- papachito 16y agoThat could be said for any artwork.