In this latest member profile, Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation talks about his new book Creativity Inc., the finding of the ‘Middle’ and how one sets up the conditions in a work environment so that creativity might flourish. He goes on to explain how he tries to maintain a work/life balance and why he decided to join the Middle Way Society.
If you’d like to read a review of ‘Creativity Inc’ by the chair of the society Robert M. Ellis, then click here.
MWS Podcast 32: Ed Catmull as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_32_Ed_Catmull
I very much enjoyed Ed Catmull’s dialogue with Barry. It demanded attention, as did Robert’s recent podcast on cognitive biases, very much a companion to Ed’s on creativity, fear of failure, and the subtle dynamics of equilibrium – or the elusive middle.
Robert’s talk left me with a ‘felt sense’ of reassurance about what Alan Watts (I think) calls ‘the wisdom of insecurity’, and this was reaffirmed by Ed through his accounts of how this can be put into practice in human groups, where people can know that failure doesn’t connote shame or blame, and being wrong is as valid as being right, when both those impostors join the joyous creative shadow-dance ‘in the middle’
Thanks Ed and Barry. I shall carry this sense to our Middle Way Society retreat later this month, when it could be good to listen to the podcasts again, and apply our understanding to our work together so far, and in our intentions for the future.
Ive just listened to this podcast. Without having anyone particular to say about it. Just want to say thanks, I enjoyed it, an interesting and erudite guest.
I’ve found this blog post about Ed’s book on the excellent Brain Pickings site, provides a few quotes from the book… https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/05/02/creativity-inc-ed-catmull-book/