Thursday, August 06, 2015

GLS15, Session 2B, Ed Catmull (Pixar) – Q&R on creativity and doing great work

There is a misconception that art and science are opposed. Creativity is required for both. 

CGI animation combines both art and science. 

Great animation alone will never create great entertainment. A great story must be present. Good stories connect with the emotions. A story that simply sticks to a form is sterile. 

Every story begins ugly. How to get from there to a good story. 

The measure of progress is how well the team works together. 

Corrective measure to regain objectivity. Peer feedback. Power structures prevent truth. A vested interest in each others' success. 

Creativity is about problem solving. It applies to all areas of life. Simple explanations dilute the problem. Real solutions are complicated. Solutions need participation from multiple people.

Society stigmatizes failure and we have emotional reactions to it (fear). Not all failure is bad and we need to learn to welcome and learn from appropriate kinds of failure. An environment where it is safe to fail. An early failure is better than a late, costly one.

Constraints can increase creativity. It forces prioritization. It forces creative solutions. Having no constraints wastes energy and saps creativity. 

Post-mortem introspection. Learning from what happened. Change how it is done so people don't get accustomed to it and game the system. 

You can talk about trust but it takes time and effort to actually trust. Stating values and agreeing to them is easy. Actually living them and getting them ingrained into culture takes much more time and effort. 

Stories are what will change this world. It's how we communicate with people. Storytelling can be abused but it can be used for good. 

Value of silent retreats. To clear all the self-chatter. May take at least four days before silence really begins to take effect. 

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