《Creativity, Inc.》简介：

Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation Studios—into the story meetings, the postmortems, and the “Braintrust” sessions where art is born. It is, at heart, a book about how to build and sustain a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”

For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner twenty-seven Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Now, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques, honed over years, that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable.

As a young man, Catmull had a dream: to make the world’s first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream first as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged an early partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later and against all odds, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success—and in the thirteen movies that followed, all of which debuted at #1 at the box office—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on philosophies that protect the creative process and ideas that defy convention, such as:

• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.

• If you don’t strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.

• It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.

• The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.

• A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.

• Do not assume that general agreement will lead to change—it takes substantial energy to move a group, even when all are on board.

Advance praise for Creativity, Inc.

“Many have attempted to formulate and categorize inspiration and creativity. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience that creativity isn’t strictly a well of ideas but an alchemy of people. In Creativity, Inc., Ed reveals, with commonsense specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way and realize a creative coalescence of art, business, and innovation.”—George Lucas

《Creativity, Inc.》摘录：

Three weeks before, John (Lasseter) had visited Steve for the last time. "We sat for about an hour talking about coming projects he was interested in. I looked at him and I realized this man had given me - given us - everything that we could ever want. I gave him a big hug. I kissed him on the cheek and for all of you" - John was crying now - "I said, 'Thank you. I love you, Steve.'"

《Creativity, Inc.》目录：

CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction: Lost and Found
PART I: GETTING STARTED
Chapter 1: Animated
Chapter 2: Pixar Is Born
Chapter 3: A Defining Goal
Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity
PART II: PROTECTING THE NEW
Chapter 5: Honesty and Candor
Chapter 6: Fear and Failure
Chapter 7: The Hungry Beast and the Ugly Baby
Chapter 8: Change and Randomness
Chapter 9: The Hidden
PART III: BUILDING AND SUSTAINING
Chapter 10: Broadening Our View
Chapter 11: The Unmade Future
PART IV: TESTING WHAT WE KNOW
Chapter 12: A New Challenge
Chapter 13: Notes Day
Afterword: The Steve We Knew
Starting Points: Thoughts for Managing a Creative Culture
Photo Insert
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
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