(June 17, 2014) “The future is not a destination, it’s a direction.” I loved this book for so many reasons. I heard Ed Catmull at Fast Company’s “Innovation Uncensored” Conference in NYC in April. He has an amazing story to tell about his lifelong interest in animation, his determination to use computers to make animated movies, and how Pixar made that dream possible.
This is designed to be a business book with lessons that can be applied to leading and managing “creatives” within an organization. I believe his lessons can be applied to any business. I also believe that all people are creative. One great bonus of the book is the “back stories” he tells about the great animated movies of the last 20+ years produced by Pixar. The birth of Pixar was made possible by Steve Jobs, who bought it after months of shopping for a buyer after George Lucas decided to shed this division of Industrial Light & Magic. The team of Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs were responsible for revolutionizing, and successfully commercializing, full length computer generated animated films starting with Toy Story in 1995. The process of developing a story, and the years it takes to produce one of these films is fascinating. Throughout it all, Ed Catmull weaves a riveting narrative of the last 27 years punctuated by observations about what made their company successful and their films excellent. The two are closely tied together.
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