從頭到尾把 Ed Catmull 的職業(yè)生涯 （絕大部分就是 Pixar 生涯） 和 Pixar 歷史述說了一遍， 在合適的時間點上連貫起大家熟悉的每一部 Pixar 電影的幕后故事和花絮， 再在其中穿插每一條創(chuàng)意公司的管理規(guī)則。

我是通過有聲書的形式在上下班的火車上聽完了這本書， 而且是我第一次接觸有聲書。 聽有聲書的體驗與讀書非常不一樣， 例如吸收更加連貫但是要更加集中精神緊跟閱讀節(jié)奏。 受了浮躁互聯(lián)網(wǎng)年代的影響， 我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已經(jīng)很難長時間集中精神， 聽書的時候一不小心拿出了手機就會走神， 而走神跟不上的時候往往又很難回頭重來走失的一段。 這樣對注意力要求提高自然很不習(xí)慣。另外遇到有感的段落沒有辦法高亮或做筆記， 只能手機里開一頁筆記寫下想法， 等后期再整理成文。 當(dāng)然聽有聲書也有一個很大的好處就是走路坐車的時候可以利用時間聽下去， 另外很難得地可以休息眼睛。

我本想聽完后把筆記整理， 摘出創(chuàng)意管理的要點， 但是作者神奇地在最后一章自己把所有干貨整理了一遍， 于是省去了很多力氣。 除此以外， 有兩點比較有趣的：

• 很多偉大的公司都是仰慕著在它之前的偉大公司啟動或成長起來的，所以成長起來會有很多前一家公司的影子。 在科技界很多公司創(chuàng)始人小時都仰慕者仙童， HP， IBM， 蘋果， 微軟， Google， etc. 而 Ed 和 John Lasseter 小時候的夢想公司是 Disney， Pixar 成立的初衷也希望像 Disney 一樣偉大 （以至于后來關(guān)系曖昧甚至求合體）。 我現(xiàn)在工作的公司也是一家受 Disney 文化影響很嚴(yán)重的公司， 這是我保持興趣堅持讀完這本書的最大原因。 我司是一家設(shè)計公司， 也是一家工程公司， 創(chuàng)意在公司文化里被奉若神靈。 一邊讀這本書的時候一邊對照公司的管理方式， 馬上可以見到某條方法為什么有效， 哪些方法不盡相同， 為什么不同。 切身感受非常深刻。
• 作者在倒數(shù)第二章寫了作者和 Pixar 眼里的 Steve Jobs。 講述了一些以前未被描述過的喬布斯。 Steve 從被蘋果趕走之后才買了 Pixar 以及發(fā)行一部部電影， Ed 眼里的 Steve 在離開蘋果的十年從一個偏執(zhí)狂慢慢變得成熟， 懂得關(guān)心人， 且有了家庭。 Steve 漸漸變得感性不再覺得自己是天地間最牛屄的男人而是為自己擁有一整個公司的比自己厲害的創(chuàng)意人員而感到自豪， 甚至在這章的末尾說出了那句廣為流傳的話： 蘋果電腦再好未來也是被扔進垃圾堆， 而 Pixar 的電影是會被永久流傳下去的。

最后， 作為總結(jié)， 聽寫了一遍書的最后一章。

Thoughts for managing a creative culture.

Here are some principles we created during the years to enable and protect creative culture. Don’t make each statement a slogan at the risk of understanding them. Think of each statement as starting point, not a conclusion.

• give good idea to mediocre team they’ll screw up. give mediocre idea to great team they’ll either fix it or come up with something better. get the team right, they’ll get the idea right.
• when looking to hire people, give their potential to grow more weight than their skill level. What they’ll be capable tomorrow is more important than what they can do today. alway try to hire ppl smarter than you. always take a chance even when it seem like potential threat.
• if ppl not free to suggest idea, you lose. do not discount ideas from unexpected sources. inspiration come from anywhere. as manager you should cook ideas from stuff and constently push them to contribute.
• many reasons for people be uncandid, your job is to find those reasons and address them. if someone disagree with you, there’s a reason, your job is to find the reason. if there’s a fear in oraganization, there’s a reason for it. our job is to a) find whats causing it b) to understand it c) try to rule it out
• ppl hesitant to say things that might rock the boat. brain trust meetings, postmortems, notes day are efforts to reinforce the idea that its ok to express yourself.
• 1st conclusion we draw from successes and failures are typically wrong. measuring outcome without evaluating process is deceiving.
• do not fall in the ilusion that by prevanting error you won’t have errors to fix. cost of prevanting errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.
• changes and uncertainties are part of life. out job is not to resist them but to build the capability to recover when unexpected events occur. manager’s job is not to prevent risks, it is to make it safe to take them.
• failure isn’t evil. its necessairy consequence of doing something new. trust doesn’t mean you trust someone wont screw up, it means you trust them even when they do screw up.
• ppl ultimately responsible for implementing a plan must be empowered to make decisions when things go wrong even before getting approval. finding and fixing problems is everybody’s job.
• desire to run everything smooth is false goal. it means measuring ppl by mistakes they make, rather than by measure their ability to solve problems.
• don’t wait for things to be perfect before you share them with others. share early and share often. it’ll be pretty when we get there but it won’t be pretty along the way.
• company’s communication structure should not mirror its organization structure. everybody should be able to talk to everybody.
• be aware of making too many rules. rules can simplify life of managers, but demeaning to the 95% who behave well. address abuses in common sense, this is more work but ultimately healthier.
• imposing limits encourage creative response. excellent work CAN emerge from limit circumstances.
• engaging with exceptional hard problems forces us to think differently. organization is more resistent to change than individual. agreement doesn’t mean a change.
• don’t accidentally make stability a goal. balance is more important than stability.
• don’t confuse the process with the goal. improving process is what we need constently invest in, making good product is the goal.