Creativity, Inc I just finished the fascinating and (I think) very worthwhile book Creativity, Inc. If youre unfamiliar, it is Ed Catmulls journal of lessons in creating and keeping a creative organization operational, wrapped with great backstory from Pixars founding through and past into its acquisition by Disney and the after-effects on Disney Animation. Ill first admit to being a fanboy of Pixar, and having loved and thrived on whatever stories I could get from the organization - many of them at WWDC lunch talks through several years by Dr Michael (Wave) Johnson. In some hindsight, Ive probably idolized those stories way too much. My own tendencies are towards collaborative efforts, and while I havent worked in what would strictly be called a creative field, Ive always seen the software and systems engineering work I do through a very creative lens. And well, frankly, Ive worked in a LOT of startups, and if you dont think creativity is key there, well - then I want to welcome you as a competitor! I think one of things that I find most fascinating about the lessons/messages from the book is Ed taking a very brave stance that excellent creative works by an organization are the summation of diverse people applying hundreds and thousands (maybe millions) of decisions and building a new whole from nothing. Thats as opposed to lots of art and creativity memes which revolve around finding the thing youre making in the haystack, in the rock youre carving, or in the words youre writing. The key difference being that the creative work is already there, and you just need to find it - which Ed specifically calls out again and again as a dangerous mindset. I call this a very brave stance because from a creative perspective, theres a kind of fundamental fear that what youre finding *simply isnt there*. If youre coming at it from a searching for something perspective, then you likely have a voice in your head asking the question When do we call off the search? Theres nothing here... or its already lost, throw in the towel. With Eds perspective, you may still ditch the effort, but its more a constant evaluation of what youve built - I think perhaps a more powerful way of looking at it, because if you built it there is no reason you couldnt just throw it away if you dont like it and build it again. Or just modify it, or renovate it, or whatever you want. The mental equivalent of saying Hey man, youre in control here! As I read the book, I spent a lot of time thinking about to apply the thoughts, lessons, and ideas to my startup and our team. Every day actions leading our product forward, defining how functionality can and/or should work - both under the covers and as its exposed to our customers. Theyre all creative decisions being made in execution, and were all feeding into that soup or braintrust to create something from nothing.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 12:53:04 +0000
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