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What it argues
Creativity, Inc. is Ed Catmull's account of building Pixar Animation Studios and the management philosophy that allowed it to produce a string of original films — Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E — that were commercially and critically extraordinary by any historical standard. Catmull co-founded Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986, ran it for decades, and later served as president of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The book is his attempt to articulate what made Pixar's creative culture work and what threatened it.
The central argument is that creativity cannot be commanded or even reliably predicted, but it can be protected by building the right organizational environment. Catmull's primary tool for this was the Braintrust — a group of trusted directors and writers who reviewed works in progress and gave candid feedback without authority to fix what they criticized. The Braintrust works because it separates diagnosis from prescription: the people who see the problems most clearly are not responsible for solving them, and the person responsible for the film retains the authority to act or not act on the feedback. This combination of candor and autonomy is what most organizations systematically prevent.
What it gets right
- 1.
Creative cultures require specific protection mechanisms because the default organizational dynamics — hierarchy, risk aversion, harmony — systematically suppress the candor that good work requires.
- 2.
The Braintrust separates diagnosis from prescription: trusted peers give candid feedback on works in progress, but the director retains authority to decide how to respond. Candor without authority produces better feedback.
- 3.
Every ambitious creative project starts as an 'ugly baby' — incomplete and flawed. Organizations that expose early work to harsh judgment too soon kill more good ideas than bad ones.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Ed Catmull is a computer scientist and animation pioneer who co-founded Pixar Animation Studios and served as its president from its founding until its acquisition by Disney in 2006. After the acquisition, he became president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, overseeing both until his retirement in 2019. At Pixar, he was part of the team that developed RenderMan, the rendering software that became an industry standard. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah. Amy Wallace is a journalist and co-author who helped structure and write the book.
