The Book Creativity By Ed Catmull - 1472 Words

The book Creativity. Inc. , by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace, is the chronological journey of Ed Catmul and Pixar from the early days until today. The best part of reading Creativity, Inc is that you know that Ed Catmull isn’t just talking the talk, he’s walking the walk. This book is separated into 4 categories: Getting Started, Protecting The New, Building and Sustaining and Testing What We Know. When Ed Catmul was younger he had two unconventional heroes for a young boy; Walt Disney and Albert Einstein. Ed felt they represented the two poles of creativity, Disney was about inventing the new and Einstein was a master of explaining (pg 7). Ed always wanted to be animator, but he really didn’t know how to go about becoming an animator,†¦show more content†¦Ed also talks about the Suitcase vs the handle – ideas are just handles – suitcase is where the real depth and gravity of the meaning of the sentence. Great people or great ideas? Ed feels great people with good ideas is much more powerful than mediocre team with the great ideas because great ideas will come from great people. When faced with a challenge you need to get smarter, the way to get smart is to hire/get or around smarter people. Always take a chance on the better even it seems threating, even if chances of failure might be high. He’s made a policy to of trying to hire people who are smarter than he is. The obvious payoffs of exceptional people are that they innovate, excel and generally make your company and you look good. P23. In the section Protecting The New, Ed discusses honesty and candor, fear and failure, his version of the hungry beast and ugly baby, change and randomness and the hidden. One of the key exercises Ed implements is the Braintrust, which are regular meetings where there is no authority in the room and they are all there to solve problems. He emphasizes on being candid and honest with each other, candid feedback. It works on the idea that any person who takes a complicated project would inevitably get lost because of narrow focus. He feels candid builds trust and empathy. One of my favorite parts of this book is Fear and Failure – there is No success without failure. He states anyone who feels that any creative endeavor is great