Andrej Karpathy mentioned Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull 1 times

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Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
  1. I appreciate what Ed has tried to do with this book, and I'm a fan of his and Pixar. It was an enjoyable read, but if I was to complain about something it's that I felt the book was trying to be contrarian quite often in a slightly forced way. I ended up noticing a formula repeated many times: In this situation most people would think X... (I didn't, and I wasn't fully sold that most would), but I think Y (I agree and I've heard something similar said several times before). Of course, there was a distribution of reactions to these statements - some I thought were relatively unique and interesting (e.g. negative spaces in art, a well-articulated defense of errors), and some were somewhat forceful (e.g. do not resist change - okay, thanks). I could also notice a persistent undertone of pride for Pixar employees, with statements such as "Do you see now why I love to work here?". Somehow I have slight negative reaction to it. I understand he's very excited and Pixar is his baby, but for me these parts started to feel like PR. There were a few things like this that slightly rubbed me the wrong way as I read through it, but I don't mean to sound too negative and overall enjoyed several interesting parts, Ed's quite obvious desire to understand these topics as well as he can is fun and contagious. I liked the chapter on the Notes day near the end, that sounds like a quite nice idea that I also see a lot of merit in - the idea of recognizing that your employees have brains, and distributing decision making through the ensemble of smart people throughout the company to some degree, and giving them a sense of ownership. A powerful strategy, and this was well articulated. Also, I liked the reflections on Steve Jobs, and the dispelled myths about his personality. I do notice quite consistently that people who knew him best cringe the most when they are asked about popular media coverage about his life. Somewhere between 3 (I liked it) and 4 (I really liked it) /5. I'll round up because it's Ed. 4/5

    — Andrej Karpathy

    2015-12-02 on goodreads.com