Pixar President Discusses Steve Jobs In His Upcoming Book
by Brent Dirks
April 4, 2014
While Pixar President Ed Catmull’s new book “Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration” won’t be released until next week, Gizmodo is offering an interesting excerpt about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
As many know, Jobs also co-founded Pixar along with Catmull and Steve Lasseter.
And Catmull says that Jobs’ time with the studio helped make Pixar the powerhouse it now is. It even changed Jobs:
Perspective is so hard to capture. I worked with Steve for more than a quarter-century—longer, I believe, than anyone else—and I saw an arc to his life that does not accord with the one-note portraits of relentless perfectionism I've read in magazines, newspapers, and even his own authorized biography. Relentless Steve—the boorish, brilliant, but emotionally tone-deaf guy that we first came to know—changed into a different man during the last two decades of his life. All of us who knew Steve well noticed the transformation. He became more sensitive not only to other people's feelings but also to their value as contributors to the creative process.Catmull also said Jobs felt Pixar made the world a better place with its films and that the movies will live on forever, unlike Apple products:
He believed, as I do, that because they dig for deeper truths, our movies will endure, and he found beauty in that idea. John talks about "the nobility of entertaining people." Steve understood this mission to his core, particularly toward the end of his life, and—knowing that entertaining wasn't his primary skill set—he felt lucky to have been involved in it.The book will be officially released on Tuesday, April 8. It can preordered now through Amazon.com. If you’re interested, definitely take a look at the entire excerpt. I’ll make sure to put the book on my reading list. For other recent news, see: Apple's Contributions Through (PRODUCT)Red Have Reached $70 Million, Greenpeace Blimp Praises Apple, Google For 'Building A Greener Internet,' and Nest Suspends Sales Of Nest Protect Alarm As It Fixes Potential Safety Issue.