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Lee Unkrich, <>.
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Ed Catmull |
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we start with the attitude that different viewpoints are additive rather than competitive,
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Ed Catmull |
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Most people have heard of the Eastern teaching that it is important to exist in the moment. It can be hard to train yourself to observe what is right now (and not to bog down in thoughts of what was and what will be), but the philosophical teaching that underlies that idea--the reason that staying in the moment is so vital--is equally important: Everything is changing. All the time. And you can't stop it. And your attempts to stop it actual..
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Ed Catmull |
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By resisting the beginner's mind, you make yourself more prone to repeat yourself than to create something new. The attempt to avoid failure, in other words, makes failure more likely.
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Ed Catmull |
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easy isn't the goal. Quality is the goal.
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Ed Catmull |
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If one looks at creativity as a resource that we continually draw upon to make something from nothing, then our fear stems from the need to make the nonexistent come into being.
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Ed Catmull |
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Creativity involves missteps and imperfections. I wanted our people to get comfortable with that idea--that both the organization and its members should be willing, at times, to operate on the edge.
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Ed Catmull |
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The seating arrangements and place cards were designed for the convenience of the leaders, including me. Sincerely believing that we were in an inclusive meeting, we saw nothing amiss because we didn't feel excluded. Those not sitting at the center of the table, meanwhile, saw quite clearly how it established a pecking order but presumed that we--the leaders--had intended that outcome. Who were they, then, to complain?
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Ed Catmull |
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Philip Glass once said, "The real issue is not how do you find your voice, but ... getting rid of the damn thing."
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Ed Catmull |
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And those cuts stem from a fundamental misconception that art classes are about learning to draw. In fact, they are about learning to see.)
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Ed Catmull |
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The unpredictable is the ground on which creativity occurs.
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Ed Catmull |
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Some people make the mistake of thinking that they are being mindful because they are focusing diligently on problems. But if they are doing so while subconsciously bound up with their worries and expectations, with no awareness that they can't see clearly or that others may know more, they aren't open at all.
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Ed Catmull |
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The good stuff was hiding the bad stuff. I realised that this was something I needed to look out for: When downsides coexist with upsides, as they often do, people are reluctant to explore what's bugging them, for the fear of being labeled complainers.
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Ed Catmull |
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I said before that problems are easy to identify, but finding the source of those problems is extraordinarily difficult.
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Ed Catmull |
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listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems. In a word: PERSIST. PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision....
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Ed Catmull |
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Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear.
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Ed Catmull |
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bacc317
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We face hundreds of challenges, every day, in our lives. The majority hardly qualify as challenges
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Ed Catmull |
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We frequently support the idea of pushing boundaries in theory, ignoring the trouble it can cause in practice.
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Ed Catmull |
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Steve understood the value of science and law, but he also understood that complex systems respond in nonlinear, unpredictable ways. And that creativity, at its best, surprises us all.
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Ed Catmull |
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desk lamp mascot, through the double doors and into a spectacular glass-ceilinged atrium where a man-sized Buzz Lightyear and Woody, made entirely of Lego bricks, stand at attention, up the stairs past sketches and paintings of the characters that have populated our fourteen
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Ed Catmull |
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Your employees are smart; that's why you hired them. So treat them that way.
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Ed Catmull |
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People who take on complicated creative projects become lost at some point in the process.
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Ed Catmull |
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When filmmakers, industrial designers, software designers, or people in any other creative profession merely cut up and reassemble what has come before, it gives the illusion of creativity, but it is craft without art. Craft is what we are expected to know; art is the unexpected use of our craft.
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Ed Catmull |
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I believe that no creative company should ever stop evolving, and this would be our latest attempt to avoid stagnation.
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Ed Catmull |
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Left to their own devices, most people don't want to fail. But Andrew Stanton isn't most people. As I've mentioned, he's known around Pixar for repeating the phrases "fail early and fail fast" and "be wrong as fast as you can." He thinks of failure like learning to ride a bike; it isn't conceivable that you would learn to do this without making mistakes--without toppling over a few times. "Get a bike that's as low to the ground as you can f..
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Ed Catmull |
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Keep on going, even when things look bleak.
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Ed Catmull |
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One of the most crucial responsibilities of leadership is creating a culture that rewards those who lift not just our stock prices but our aspirations as well.
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Ed Catmull |
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real
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Ed Catmull |
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If you aren't experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake:
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Ed Catmull |
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A better measure of our success is to look at the people on our team and see how they are working together.
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Ed Catmull |
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Who better to teach than the most capable among us? And I'm not just talking about seminars or formal settings. Our actions and behaviors, for better or worse, teach those who admire and look up to us how to govern their own lives. Are we thoughtful about how people learn and grow? As leaders, we should think of ourselves as teachers and try to create companies in which teaching is seen as a valued way to contribute to the success of the wh..
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Ed Catmull |
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DISCUSSING FAILURE AND all its ripple effects is not merely an academic exercise. We face it because by seeking better understanding, we remove barriers to full creative engagement. One of the biggest barriers is fear, and while failure comes with the territory, fear shouldn't have to. The goal, then, is to uncouple fear and failure--to create an environment in which making mistakes doesn't strike terror into your employees' hearts.
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Ed Catmull |
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Creative people must accept that challenges never cease, failure can't be avoided, and "vision" is often an illusion."
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Ed Catmull |
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Athletes and musicians often refer to being in "the zone"--that mystical place where their inner critic is silenced and they completely inhabit the moment, where the thinking is clear and the motions are precise. Often, mental models help get them there. Just as George Lucas liked to imagine his company as a wagon train headed west--its passengers full of purpose, part of a team, unwavering in their pursuit of their destination--the coping ..
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Ed Catmull |
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In big organizations there are advantages to consistency, but I strongly believe that smaller groups within the larger whole should be allowed to differentiate themselves and operate according to their own rules, so long as those rules work. This fosters a sense of personal ownership and pride in the company that, to my mind, benefits the larger enterprise.
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Ed Catmull |
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one of the pioneers of interactive computer graphics, Ivan Sutherland.
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Ed Catmull |
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The Sword of Damocles, after the Greek myth,
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Ed Catmull |
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This tension between the individual's personal creative contribution and the leverage of the group is a dynamic that exists in all creative environments, but this would be my first taste of it.
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Ed Catmull |
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taking a risk necessitated a willingness to deal with the mess created by the risk.
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Ed Catmull |
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Our mental models aren't reality. They are tools, like the models weather forecasters use to predict the weather.
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Ed Catmull |
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To view lack of conflict as optimum is like saying a sunny day is optimum. A sunny day is when the sun wins out over the rain. There's no conflict. You have a clear winner. But if every day is sunny and it doesn't rain, things don't grow. And if it's sunny all the time--if, in fact, we don't ever even have night--all kinds of things don't happen and the planet dries up. The key is to view conflict as essential, because that's how we know th..
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Ed Catmull |
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During the Lucasfilm years, I definitely had my periods of feeling overwhelmed as a manager, periods when I wondered about my own abilities and asked myself if I should try to adopt a more forceful, alpha male management style. I'd put my version of hierarchy in place by delegating to other managers, but I was also part of a chain of command in the greater Lucasfilm empire. I remember going home at night, exhausted, feeling like I was balan..
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Ed Catmull |
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The attempt to avoid failure, in other words, makes failure more likely.
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Ed Catmull |
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It's folly to think you can avoid change, no matter how much you might want to. But also, to my mind, you shouldn't want to. There is no growth or success without change.
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Ed Catmull |