Another book I’ll need to keep somewhere within sight so my mind goes back to it often.
Ed Catmull shares not just takeaways from his long and successful career, but the journey and trial and error and humility that makes it all meaningful. Not just conclusions, but how he arrived at them. It doesn’t hurt that Pixar’s history and evolution is the setting in which Catmull’s widsom accumulates in so many ways.
It’s Catmull’s persistently vigilant, unending quest for balance, self-awareness, and a thriving creative environment that I found fascintating. It’s almost strange that the book manages to come to an end, with Lasseter’s hiatus and what I can only assume are challenging and interesting times (again!) for Pixar and Disney Animation.
The whole thing managed to be personally inspiring, reassuring, and challenging. There’s a lot that gets into management and the dynamics of larger businesses, but it remains personally relevant because it’s really about complex people living satisfying lives and working together to make something great.