Why people recommend it
Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition) by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace is an insightful leadership and management guide that explores how to build and sustain a creative culture, drawing heavily on the author's experiences at Pixar Animation Studios. On an episode of My First Million, a speaker noted Pixar's philosophy that the creative process is not about instantly generating flawless ideas, but rather about taking something that is flawed and removing the shortcomings. Steven Soderbergh brought up the book on SmartLess to illustrate effective problem-solving, highlighting the core organizational motto to be wrong as fast as you can. On the a16z Podcast, Dick Costolo referenced Ed Catmull's work while discussing leadership philosophy, noting that a leader's true job is not to prevent mistakes from occurring, but rather to correct them as swiftly as possible when they do happen. Furthermore, Jason Calacanis mentioned on The Jordan Harbinger Show that he had previously interviewed Ed Catmull on his own podcast to discuss the lessons and behind-the-scenes stories featured in the text. Across these various shows, podcast hosts and guests consistently recommended the book as an essential resource for fostering innovation, handling failures constructively, and leading creative teams toward excellence.
Who recommended it
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 7
“and they had a thing where they were like at Pixar they have a book called creativity Inc I creativity Inc yeah and he said it's not people think oh we just come up with the best ideas right away he goes no he goes the creative process is taking something that sucks and removing suck”
“There's that, you know, perfect explanation of how to solve things from the Ed Catmull book about Pixar, Creativity, Inc., where the motto is, 'Be wrong as fast as you can.'”
“uh if they're interested in the simple path to wealth which is my book there's a link to that will take them to Amazon to buy the book”
“and he had he actually read my book the Dow of wool and that led to him having an interest in making this into a TV series”
“so you can check out my book the right side of history It talks about a lot of the sort of deeper issues we're talking about judeo-christian values and reason”
“and when I talked to Ed Catmull from Pixar on my podcast the guy who wrote the book creativity I was like was that a [ __ ] you from Pixar and Steve Jobs to the critics he said yeah”
“I always told the team—and the Pixar president, Ed Catmull, says this as well in his great book Creativity, Inc.—it's not your job as a leader to prevent mistakes from happening; it's your job as a leader to correct mistakes as quickly as you can when they happen.”