A conversation with Pixar's Ed Catmull

scottberkun.com

49 points·tim_sw··9 comments

I'm always amazed every time I read or watch interviews or talks by Catmull for his incisiveness.

It's so rare to find someone who's both technically and organizationally brilliant, with a track record as phenomenal as he has had at Pixar.

Wow. I couldn't stop paying attention to it in fear that I might miss something he says.

Any other of his talks or interviews that you might recommend?

there's this one called "keep your crisis small" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc

Oh I just finished watching that :P Thanks!

Also psychologically. He seems clinical and dry, but after a while I get the sense that he is utterly in love.

I really appreciate how he's always searching for things that went/go/will go wrong even thought everything seems to go so well for Pixar. I find that inspiring.

> I really appreciate how he's always searching for things that went/go/will go wrong even thought everything seems to go so well for Pixar.

Of course, the fact that things are going fairly well makes it easier for him to find and focus on things that aren't going well.

It's a virtuous circle wrt technical debt. The less you have, the more effort that you can apply to each bit that you do have. And, if things are going well, the less that you spend in total on reducing your technical debt.

That seems right. However I think with an organization like Pixar there is an enormous energy that can potentially spew technical debt like nobody's business. If it goes off the rails, it could go off in a big way.

For that reason a manager in his position has to be hyper vigilant and really have his approach down pat, which appears to be the case.

Very cool stuff. I was expecting a lot and still I was blown away.

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