Tag Archives: creativity

Creativity, inc

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started “Creativity, inc.” In the end, it’s a bunch of anecdotes strung together to explain certain business practices that Ed Catmull believes has made Pixar successful. Half biography, half management guide if you like.

While the stories are engaging, and he has a surprising degree of humility, it’s difficult to see how many of the ideas can be successfully translated to other industries. Which is not to say that he’s wrong just that I wouldn’t expect to take his advice and immediately apply it to your workplace.

For example, he spends time talking about how the Braintrust has helped identify or solve many problems. But how would that work for a software product? (Is software engineered or crafted as other creative endeavours are? That’s a longer discussion for another time but, in short, I think it qualifies as creative.) I can see how it might help a review of the UX or visuals but the most helpful people for a code review would likely already be on the project. You need so much domain specific knowledge that I have a hard time seeing how an independent third party could provide anything other than high-level or generic development advice.

The other thing that stood out is that much of the advice would only work for companies awash with cash. I absolutely see the value in, say, teaching a designer how to code or engineers how to draw (two examples from Pixar U) but calculating that value and showing an ROI? Even the “rich” companies I’ve worked for have generally shown a preference for “shareholder value” and profits than hard to justify benefits for employees. Maybe that is why Pixar is successful where so many others are not, but you’d need a lot of spare money to support these endeavours, and not every enterprise is in an industry where they could afford do so even if they were willing.

Ultimately I’m a sucker for anything Pixar, so I found it to be an enjoyable read, and it certainly gives food for thought. Maybe that’s all it’s supposed to do. But will I be directly applying many of these lessons to my day job? Sadly not.

My delicious.com bookmarks for February 8th through February 20th

  • An Attribution Failure Theory – "Credit is easy. Well, mostly easy. It might have been hard to get the format of citations right at first in school when we were writing papers, but the act of citing is easy. You just do it. Yet, people all over the Internet don’t."
  • You Are Not Ruthless Enough – "Here’s the thing: you are not ruthless enough. You are certainly not ruthless enough to your objects, and you probably need to be more ruthless to yourself." Programming Is Hard, Part 381.
  • You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You – "The seven step, ten minute download process (which will be about ten seconds when US internet speeds catch up with the rest of the world) is the real enemy the studios should be trying to tackle."

My delicious.com bookmarks for November 23rd through November 30th

  • The BBC Micro turns 30 – Pretty much every Brit around my age will remember the Model B. It felt so… professional after using the Sinclair Spectrum!
  • Thanksgiving Is Un-American – Socialism and illegal immigration… Why thanksgiving is un-American.
  • Coders are creatives too: Where’s our love? – "How did a person whose greatest educational achievement is crayoning without going over the lines get termed 'a creative', when the people who built our world are dismissed as geeks and bottom feeders?"

My delicious.com bookmarks for November 16th through November 22nd

  • Coders are creatives too: Where’s our love? – "How did a person whose greatest educational achievement is crayoning without going over the lines get termed 'a creative', when the people who built our world are dismissed as geeks and bottom feeders?"
  • Happy 40th birthday, Intel 4004! – In a way this stated the whole microcomputer… I hate to say "revolution" but I can't think of a better word.
  • Steve Jobs: The parable of the stones – "It's the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people 'here's this great idea,' then of course they can go off and make it happen. And the problem with that is that there's just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product."

My delicious.com bookmarks for August 11th through August 19th

  • Pope merchandise – "The pope is visiting the UK soon, and the merchandise is already on sale, but it's rubbish. This week's challenge is to show the Vatican what they should be selling to mark the occasion. God will be delighted." (via @bengoldacre)
  • The Creativity Crisis – "The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded." It's always bugged me when people refer to 'the creatives' when talking about designers or artists. This is why! But back to the article… it's interesting that you can "teach" or at least encourage creativity.

My delicious.com bookmarks for October 4th through October 9th

  • Why Creativity Needs Shorter Copyright Terms – The subject line says it all. The "creative" industries have done a good job of convincing politicians that longer copyrights are better, but they're only better for those middle-men…
  • Giant ring detected around Saturn – "The scale of the new ring feature is astonishing. Nothing like it has been seen elsewhere in the Solar System."
  • I don’t go to restaurants to tell the truth – "Tips are embarrassing and stupid – they're vestigial haggling in a society that has otherwise moved on. If you're going to a restaurant to be served and eat a meal, why is the price of the delivery open to negotiation but not that of the food itself, the ambience, music, heating or use of the furniture? All of these things can disappoint or delight. It's illogical to fix the price of one element but not the others."