Creativity Inc. 讀完，創(chuàng)意工作者特別是創(chuàng)意行業(yè)的管理者必讀的一本書。Ed Catmull是Pixar的最早創(chuàng)始人，也是和John Lassette、Steve Jobs合為Pixar黃金三角的最重要角色，這本書除了講述Pixar的發(fā)展歷程，更注重于如何對于創(chuàng)意工作者進行管理（這方面誰會比Pixar更有發(fā)言權(quán)？）最關(guān)鍵的因素就是：管理者要創(chuàng)造一個允許犯錯的安全環(huán)境，這樣大家的才華才會充分發(fā)揮。這不是說說，舉個例子：玩具總動員2的過程文件曾經(jīng)被全部誤刪除，100多人的團隊2年多的工作付之東流，這個錯誤算是嚴重了吧？但某員工因為在家辦公居多，家里電腦同步了最新的過程文件，于是損失最后只有一周的工作量。Pixar怎么處理這個重大錯誤的？不予追究。他們甚至沒去查是誰刪除的文件。這就是“安全的允許犯錯的環(huán)境”。 作者Ed用了若干章的篇幅來描述自己和Steve Jobs共事的經(jīng)歷，和蘋果員工眼中的暴戾的老板喬布斯不同，Pixar的喬布斯簡直是完美的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)：對外犀利地維護Pixar的權(quán)利，對內(nèi)激勵員工發(fā)揮出最大潛能，永遠對事不對人，完全尊重創(chuàng)作者，只要你能在邏輯和專業(yè)上說服他。和其他傳記作者眼中的喬布斯不一樣，Ed和他共事了25年，幾乎算是與喬布斯共事時間最長的人，他眼中的喬布斯，展現(xiàn)出更令人愿意追隨的一面。當然，被他蹂躪的人也不少，比如超人總動員的導(dǎo)演John Lassette和他第一次開會，就被懟得有些盯不住…… 作為個人從這本書里可以學到什么？除了重視失敗之外，我覺得最重要的是去除“項目按計劃進行”的幻覺。任何項目都不可能按計劃完美滴實現(xiàn)，過程必然充滿不確定性，必須有自己的模型或方法來面對，否則永遠不會寧靜。Scrum算是一種方法（對于dev），對于設(shè)計師，雙鉆石設(shè)計流程算是一種。不過我最喜歡書里介紹的Pixar獨創(chuàng)的Brain Trust會，建立在絕對信任基礎(chǔ)上的專業(yè)批評會，完全針對作品的攻擊，向往。 Creativity Inc. shows us how the most creative team of this planet manage their people and project, and what makes Pixar became a legendary company. The book is so good that when I listened to the audiobook, I always felt guilty that I occasionally missed some part. The content is too good to miss. The most important thing that makes Pixar extraordinary is the attitude towards failure. The founders of Pixar do all the things they can to create a safe atmosphere for making mistakes. Because they believe when you dare to fail, you are more likely to create something different. They do not just say some pretty words. For example, the whole project file of Toy Story 2 was deleted by accident, which meant 2 years hard working of a 100 man's team would be wasted. By pure luck, the file was restored from a work from home employee's computer. They didn't punish the people deleted the file after that. Actually, they didn't even try to find out who deleted the file. That's the attitude of letting the people fail and learn from it. I was touched by the part about Steve Jobs in this book. Steve created the roadmap of Pixar in the early days, and protected this company with his fierce business instinct, Pixar also makes Steve a better leader and visionary by shows him the perfect way of combine art and technology. Ed Catmull worked with Steve for more than 25 years, the Steve in this book is different from other books, which I dream to work for. One thing really makes Pixar different from other competitors, is the storytelling. It is the hardest part of making a movie, and it is an art. As a designer, I should learn the methodologies and the frameworks of working, which is the technology part, but I also need to focus on the emotion and the story, which is the art part. Art challenges technology, and technology inspires art.