Books I've Read This Week

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull is a book that I enjoyed because it does a pretty good job of giving you the back story on how the company Pixar came to be. Pixar is the fascinating company that has given us wonderful movies like Toy Story, Up and Wall-E. It is really interesting to hear how they overcame various challenges over their lifetime. Where it doesn't work for me is a business book. Most of what Mr. Catmull tries to import as knowledge seems like rehashed platitudes to me. He even makes allusion to this in the book. What's even worse is a lot of his people first approach in this book rings false as he's been implicated as a central figure in a wage fixing scandal. So I'd rate this book as a solid borrow for those of us who want to learn more about how movies are made at Pixar.