Pixar films don't get finished, they just get released | Hacker News Reader

Pixar films don't get finished, they just get released

lettersofnote.com

221 pointsb3n32 comments

A manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the program on which he was working. ``It will be finished tomorrow,'' the programmer promptly replied.

``I think you are being unrealistic,'' said the manager, ``Truthfully, how long will it take?''

The programmer thought for a moment. ``I have some features that I wish to add. This will take at least two weeks,'' he finally said.

``Even that is too much to expect,'' insisted the manager, ``I will be satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete.''

The programmer agreed to this.

Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his retirement luncheon, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal. He had been programming all night.

The Tao of Programming, 5.2 http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html

When I was just starting in the software development business, I worked under a project manager who liked to say - "in order to get a realistic estimate of a completion time, take what the programmer said, multiply by two and shift to the next time period" meaning that 1 day translates to 2 weeks, 2 weeks to 4 months, etc. Cynical, but accurate :)

That's just about the coolest response to a letter one could hope for - the kinda thing you frame and show your friends (or in this case, highlight on a blog).

Handwritten is awesome as it is, but the little sketches give it such a great personal touch. Very classy.

Only problem with framing: It's two-sided :) (It looks to me)

It is really nice letter indeed.

Frame it between two pieces of glass. More complicated if you want it on the wall, but a hinge shouldn't be too tricky.

That's a really neat idea! Now I'm thinking of which short stories to frame on my wall =)

He's just inspired me to add a little sketch to my next handwritten thank you note. It's definitely a lost art. Cheers to him for giving it a delightful & personal twist.

Here's another great letter of similar style by the creator of ren and stimpy:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/01/your-pal-john-k.html

(I like how the pixar guy said that it's all about having a good story, while the ren & stimpy guy says that good drawing is more important than the story)

I realize this isn't proof of anything, but Pixar is a hell of a lot more successful than Ren & Stimpy. Perhaps that means something.

I don't think either's success can be compared accurately — one is a behemoth of a company and the other operates on a much, much smaller scale.

Besides, Ren & Stimpy did garner a sizeable cult following (not including myself) — and quantifying interest in a cult classic isn't as simple as tracking purchases.

Perhaps a better comparison would be Pixar vs. Nickelodeon.

When I saw this title, I was sure I've seen a statement like that before. I looked it up, and true enough, Paul Graham wrote this in his essay "Design and Research":

"Indeed, there is even a saying among painters: 'A painting is never finished, you just stop working on it.' This idea will be familiar to anyone who has worked on software."

>"Indeed, there is even a saying among painters:

This is true of many artists, but certainly not all. I know of an artist that showed the same piece (a painting) in 4 shows at different stages of development, I kinda liked that, particularly as she was still putting paint in 5 minutes before the show I was at was to open.

My boss was giving a retrospective on one of our projects, and included a slide that was headlined, "Design expands to fill all available time." He and our product manager got into an argument over whether that was really true or not, and various tweaks to the wording that would make it true if not. The argument ended when I pointed out that the fact that we'd been arguing over it for an hour was a pretty good indication that it was correct, and that the presentation was in five minutes so he better decide one way or another soon.

Musicians and recording engineers have the same saying.

s/painting/mix

This just makes me smile. It's nice to see good things being done by good people.

Being a PhD student, that touches a sensitive nerve. They say a dissertation is never finished, its abandoned!

The saying is much older than that. "Art is never finished, only abandoned" seems to be widely attributed to de Vinci and "A poem is never finished, only abandoned" to Paul Valery.

Pete Docter is one of the nicest guys alive. I am in no way surprised that he took the time to write back a handwritten note.

It is showing that Pixar shares Steve Jobs with Apple. "Great artists ship." Quite!

The quote is: "Real artists ship". E.g. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Pirate_Flag.txt

You're right, and I really knew that, I say now as I look back at my post with a puzzled expression.. thanks! :-)

So it's like all software, then...

Given the other comments in this thread, it's like any other creative work, though I'd argue that the creativity in software is not always visible on the surface (granted, IANAA).

i think software analogy is not quite right. after sw is released next iterations or "sequels" are generally refinement of the first. movies are not.

That could be said for any artwork.

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