3 ms·

Curious, does anyone remember how the book "Creativity, Inc" (by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace) represent the situation? Read it years ago but don't remember.

by kreetx 4y ago

seventytwo 4y ago
I remember how much of an emphasis that book put on candor… Interesting.
Version467 4y ago
I read it recently for the first time. My memory might already be inaccurate, but I remember him mentioned, though nowhere near as prominent as Steve Jobs or John Lasseter and certainly not as important as this letter makes it ought to be.
GlacierFox 4y ago
I read the book recently. He's mentioned quite a bit though the book and has an extra acknowledgments area at the end with pictures and stuff.
quacked 4y ago
I've read a good number of memoirs and biographies of both technical and artistic people, and I found "Creativity, Inc." to be a real snooze, except for the chapters about Steve Jobs and Catmull's own education history. It's not so much that the book is "boring" as that it's very light on non-sanitized opinions. The leadership advice Catmull offers is often of the caliber "listen to your people" or "remember to second-guess yourself when you think you're right", and then his examples almost use more name-recognition than actually interesting opinions and takes on the stories that happened. He says stuff like "we were working on <Famous Film> and it just wasn't working, so we convened a meeting with A, B, and C and eventually were able to rework the script so it worked." Yawn. Contrasted with the recollections of a guy like Feynman, it's just not a very interesting book. (Great cover design, though.) I suspect that Catmull is a shrewd, canny, clever man with a lot of anger and criticism for people, and I didn't think his book accurately represented the depth of his opinions or feelings. I could be TOTALLY wrong about that, maybe that really is how he thinks and remembers things, but I'd be surprised.
- kreetx 4y ago
  This is how I remember the book as well: as if the grain was blurred out of the photograph if the book were a photograph. Perhaps as you, I listened to the audiobook on a binge of going though many other books as well (Masters of Doom, Steve, etc) and this wasn't as good and didn't have the detail as the others.

Curious, does anyone remember how the book "Creativity, Inc" (by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace) represent the situation? Read it years ago but don't remember.

by kreetx 4y ago

Curious, does anyone remember how the book "Creativity, Inc" (by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace) represent the situation? Read it years ago but don't remember.

seventytwo 4y ago

I remember how much of an emphasis that book put on candor… Interesting.

Version467 4y ago

I read it recently for the first time. My memory might already be inaccurate, but I remember him mentioned, though nowhere near as prominent as Steve Jobs or John Lasseter and certainly not as important as this letter makes it ought to be.

GlacierFox 4y ago

I read the book recently. He's mentioned quite a bit though the book and has an extra acknowledgments area at the end with pictures and stuff.

quacked 4y ago

I've read a good number of memoirs and biographies of both technical and artistic people, and I found "Creativity, Inc." to be a real snooze, except for the chapters about Steve Jobs and Catmull's own education history. It's not so much that the book is "boring" as that it's very light on non-sanitized opinions. The leadership advice Catmull offers is often of the caliber "listen to your people" or "remember to second-guess yourself when you think you're right", and then his examples almost use more name-recognition than actually interesting opinions and takes on the stories that happened. He says stuff like "we were working on <Famous Film> and it just wasn't working, so we convened a meeting with A, B, and C and eventually were able to rework the script so it worked." Yawn. Contrasted with the recollections of a guy like Feynman, it's just not a very interesting book. (Great cover design, though.) I suspect that Catmull is a shrewd, canny, clever man with a lot of anger and criticism for people, and I didn't think his book accurately represented the depth of his opinions or feelings. I could be TOTALLY wrong about that, maybe that really is how he thinks and remembers things, but I'd be surprised.

kreetx 4y ago
This is how I remember the book as well: as if the grain was blurred out of the photograph if the book were a photograph. Perhaps as you, I listened to the audiobook on a binge of going though many other books as well (Masters of Doom, Steve, etc) and this wasn't as good and didn't have the detail as the others.