《创意公司》是皮克斯联合创始人埃德·卡特穆尔撰写的一本书，讲述了皮克斯从创立到成为动画电影巨头的历程。卡特穆尔以自身经验为基础，深入探讨了创意、创新、团队合作和领导力的重要性，并强调了在失败中学习、不断改进的重要性。这本书不仅为读者提供宝贵的管理经验，更展现了皮克斯团队的独特文化和精神，为读者带来启迪和激励。

📖 **失败是成功的垫脚石:** 卡特穆尔在书中强调了失败的重要性，他认为失败是学习和成长的机会。皮克斯的成功并非一蹴而就，而是经历了无数次的失败，并从中吸取教训，不断改进。卡特穆尔将失败视为一种宝贵的资源，鼓励团队成员积极面对失败，从失败中吸取经验，并将其转化为未来成功的动力。他认为，只有敢于面对失败，才能不断突破自我，创造新的可能性。他以自身为例，分享了他在皮克斯公司发展历程中遇到的各种挑战和挫折，并阐述了如何从这些失败中汲取经验，最终取得成功的经验。

👥 **团队合作的力量:** 皮克斯的成功离不开团队合作，卡特穆尔在书中强调了团队合作的重要性。他认为，一个成功的团队需要拥有共同的目标、相互信任、勇于挑战和包容。卡特穆尔在皮克斯公司建立了一种独特的工作文化，鼓励团队成员之间相互合作、互相学习，并共同创造出优秀的作品。他认为，只有当团队成员之间相互信任、互相支持，才能发挥出团队的最大潜力。他以皮克斯公司的动画制作过程为例，说明了团队合作在创意和技术方面发挥的重要作用。

💡 **不断创新和突破:** 卡特穆尔在书中强调了创新的重要性，他认为只有不断创新才能保持领先地位。皮克斯公司在动画电影领域一直保持着领先地位，这得益于他们不断探索新的技术和创意。卡特穆尔鼓励团队成员勇于尝试新的事物，并不断挑战自我。他认为，只有敢于冒险，才能创造出新的可能性。他以皮克斯公司制作的动画电影为例，说明了创新在电影制作中的重要性。

Most of the nonfiction books I read these days fall into two broad categories: books about people I admire and books about the creation of things I admire. Good books about the latter often turn into the former by the end.

The book I just finished, Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, had a head start on both counts. My love of Pixar is not surprising or uncommon. As for Ed Catmull, I’ve been aware of him and his contemporaries for decades (I had an Alvy Ray Smith quote in my .sig for a while in the 90s), but my nerd crush really stepped into high gear when I saw a video of Catmull’s talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2007.

It’s difficult for me to describe my reaction to that talk—and to his new book—without sounding absurdly self-aggrandizing, but I’m going to give it a shot. Saying what other people are thinking is a proven formula for mass-market appeal employed by everyone from talk radio hosts to stand-up comedians. But as someone whose thoughts and interests have always been outside the norm, I’ve rarely heard excerpts from my own inner dialog voiced on a broader stage.

Ed Catmull does that for me. If you’ve listened to my Hypercritical podcast or read the article that inspired it, you will find many familiar topics and themes in Creativity, Inc. Now, believe me, I harbor no illusions about this overlap. I am not the guy who hears Louis C.K. tell a joke and thinks he could be just as funny because he had a similar thought once. But shared values and the fulfillment of common aspirations are at the heart of all hero worship.

Ed Catmull’s dream was to create the first fully computer-animated feature film. As a child, I also dreamed of such a thing; Catmull and the rest of the people at Pixar actually made it happen. Similarly, as an adult, I’ve clung to the notion that critical thinking can be both useful and powerful. Creativity, Inc. explains just how powerful it can be when practiced by a handful of the most brilliant technical and creative people alive today.

Ay, there’s the rub. It’s so easy to hear the vaguest echo of your own thoughts expressed by someone fantastically smart and accomplished and view that as a cosmic endorsement of your approach to life. But that absolutely would not be in keeping with the message of the book—a message Catmull tries again and again to communicate to readers he knows will resist it.

Indeed, Catmull most often uses himself as an example of someone who has failed to see through to the heart of a problem. This is the true strength of the book. Unlike so many other tech-industry memoirs and business books, Creativity, Inc. is not an abstract exploration of a philosophy, nor is it a list of accomplishments interspersed with bold commandments. Instead, it is a deep, thoughtful investigation of a never-ending series of failures—and the reactions to those failures that eventually led to success.

Think of it: the man who invented texture mapping, made computer-animated films possible, and led his studio to release a string of amazing, Oscar-winning examples of the form decides to write a book…and then builds it around an examination of his own mistakes. Ed Catmull may not be your kind of hero, but he sure is mine.