Personally supervised by Walt himself to ensure that as many rooms as possible had windows to let in natural light.
No matter how intensely we desire certainty, we should understand that whether because of our limits or randomness or future unknowable confluences of events, something will inevitably come, unbidden,...
Gathered for a two-day off-site in a rustic cabin, 50 miles north of San Francisco, that often functions as our unofficial retreat center. The place, called the Poet’s Loft, is all redwood and glass—p...
Desk lamp mascot, through the double doors and into a spectacular glass-ceilinged atrium where a man-sized Buzz Lightyear and Woody, made entirely of Lego bricks, stand at attention, up the stairs pas...
All those who’d volunteered to be idea advocates were called in to work with Tom and his team to hone their pitches. Then, they began making them to me, John, and our general manager, Jim Morris—and t...
A conversation with him took you places you didn’t expect. It forced you not just to defend but also to engage. And that in itself, I came to believe, had value.
We must acknowledge the random events that went our way, because acknowledging our good fortune—and not telling ourselves that everything we did was some stroke of genius—lets us make more realistic a...
We had learned long ago that while everyone appreciates cash bonuses, they value something else almost as much: being looked in the eye by someone they respect and told, Thank you.
We called it Notes Day, and I see it as a stellar example of how to set the table for creativity. Managers of creative companies must never forget to ask themselves: How do we tap the brainpower of ou...
WHAT IS IT, exactly, that people are really afraid of when they say they don’t like change? There is the discomfort of being confused or the extra work or stress the change may require. For many peopl...
Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear.
Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear. Doing all these things...
Una de las tradiciones anuales de la empresa es la Pixarpalooza, un macrofestival en el que nuestras propias bandas de rock luchan por la primacía dejándose el alma en los escenarios que erigimos en e...
The Z-buffer accomplished that by assigning a depth to every object in three-dimensional space, then telling the computer to match each of the screen’s pixels to whatever object was the closest.
People who take on complicated creative projects become lost at some point in the process.
My belief is that good leadership can help creative people stay on the path to excellence no matter what business they’re in.
John coined a new phrase: Quality is the best business plan. What he meant was that quality is not a consequence of following some set of behaviors. Rather, it is a prerequisite and a mindset you must...
In the intervening years, George has said that he hired me because of my honesty, my clarity of vision, and my steadfast belief in what computers could do. Not long after we met, he offered me the job...
If I start on a film and right away know the structure—where it’s going, the plot—I don’t trust it, Pete says. I feel like the only reason we’re able to find some of these unique ideas, characters, an...
I WANT TO end this list by talking a little more about the founding of Pixar University and Elyse Klaidman’s mind-expanding drawing classes in particular. Those first classes were such a success—of th...