The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 37 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Jack Welch Gutted GE and His Disciples Later Damaged Boeing
“It's split up into pieces. And it was completely fragile. Not robust because he gutted it of the future research. But the people that were there were hired and considerably valuable because they'd grown up in that system. Two of them which went on to become le…”
Steve Jobs Was Excluded From Pixar's Braintrust Due to His Overwhelming Presence
“Steve had such a powerful voice that it didn't matter when he spoke,
Ed Catmull: He was going to have this extremely strong effect on the dynamics of the room, and he understood that.
Ed Catmull: So, it was the reason he didn't come.
Ed Catmull: I said, you…”
Steve Jobs Never Gave Film Notes That Others Had Not Already Voiced
“There was nothing that Steve ever said that had not been said by some of the, somebody else before in one of those meetings.”
Steve Jobs Transformed His Leadership Style Between 1991 and 1995
“What people didn't understand, and I think they didn't know, was that years of 91 to 95 was when Steve made this major transformation.”
Corporate Leaders Mistake Sycophancy for Insight
“Every company says they do that. Most of them are full of shit, right? They, what they've got are people around them who are telling them what the leader wants to hear. And the leader thinks, because they're hearing what they want to hear, that they've got thi…”
Steve Jobs Fired Two Pixar Board Members for Never Disagreeing
“In that 10 year period, Steve fired two members of the board of directors at Pixar. The reason he fired them was that they never disagreed, and he said, if they don't disagree with me, then they aren't bringing any value to the company.”
Catmull: Pixar's Braintrust failed as an outside force but worked for problem-solving
“Now, ah, it was to replace what Tom Schumacher was doing. It didn't work. The problem was, they weren't outside. They're in the building, they're all the time, and they're always know what's going on. Ah, so the notion of them being on the outside isn't true. …”
Catmull: Steve Jobs acted as Pixar's outside corrective force
“We had to get another outside force, and the outside force was Steve Jobs.”
Leaders Must Stay Silent for the First 15 Minutes of Feedback
“There's another reason why you didn't go to the brain trust meetings, is that in order to get the dynamics right, that the people with power, either real or perceived power, need to shut the hell up for the first 10 to 15 minutes.
David Senra: And he couldn't…”
A CEO's Job Is Managing Room Dynamics, Not Making the Product
“So paying attention to the dynamics of those rooms is the job. They're the ones that are making the movies. I'm not making the movie. I'm just trying to make sure they work well together.”
Catmull: Michael Eisner testified before Congress without understanding digital ripping
“Michael Eisner was testifying against without knowing what the term actually meant. So it was upsetting to Steve.”
Steve Jobs Considered Pixar's Initial Disney Contract His Worst Deal Ever
“Steve walked away feeling like it was one of the worst deal he's ever struck.”
Catmull: Jobs refused to renew Pixar deal while Eisner ran Disney
“Michael Eisner was still the CEO, and he would not have continued with Michael Eisner. So, since we were getting into the contract, he started discussions with other studios which would mean, you know, them doing the distribution.”
Bob Iger Won Steve Jobs Over by Admitting Disney's Weak Hand
“Bob Iger starts the conversation by saying, I've got a crappy hand, can we talk? And for him, it's like, that's a show of honesty that's unusual.
David Senra: Usually you don't start a negotiation by saying, hey, other party, you have all the leverage here.
…”
Pixar Directors Can Make Mistakes, But Cannot Lose the Team
“The one thing that the director can't do, they can screw up in all sorts of ways, but they can't lose the team. That was our guiding line.”
Catmull: Mission statements provide static answers when companies should ask questions
“A mission statement is an answer when typically we should always be asking questions.”
Catmull: Steve Jobs did not believe Pixar's success was solely his doing
“No. I think some people think he did, and I, that was interesting there, but no, he didn't. He was very, we talked about this. He was very clear about it. Like any project, you know, when you work on something, there are a lot of people around that are working…”
Discipline Individuals Directly Instead of Making Blanket Company Rules
“If somebody violates a rule of common sense, People do once in a while. You call them on the carpet, you tell them you can't do it, but you don't make a rule so that nobody else makes the same mistake. Because as soon as you make more rules, then people are wo…”
Catmull: Serious creative problems require small groups rather than large meetings
“If things are going well, you like a bigger group because you're training other people to feel comfortable. In this way of working. But the problem is really serious when you go to a small group where they're for past that stuff and they can focus on the probl…”
Catmull: Disney signed initial Pixar deal expecting small boutique films
“Our contract with Disney, an initial contract, was to make three movies. And at the time it was signed Disney perceived that Pixar was going to produce boutique films, their word, much as they would consider A Nightmare Before Christmas, a stop motion animated…”
Jobs Secretly Previewed the First iPhone While Disclosing His Terminal Cancer
“It's actually when he showed us the first iPhone when it was a secret. And we're on this bridge between the one building and there's a bridge over that goes between another tall building next to it. And the secret lab is where they're designing it. And he told…”
Catmull: Disney never inspected Pixar's processes despite contractual rights
“That contract gave them the right To look at everything we did and all of our processes. As we started to become successful, nobody from Disney ever came and said, what are you guys doing?”
Catmull: Pixar completed 21 of 22 films started; Disney completed 10 of 11
“Before I left, we completed 21 of the 22 films we started. So, but it's just bizarre in that world, and at Disney we completed, by the time I left, 10 of the 11 that we'd started.”
Catmull: Disney theme parks prevented company from being broken up
“The thing that actually, in my opinion, that kept Disney together from, kept them being broken up, was the theme parks itself.”
Catmull: George Lucas was first since Walt Disney to embrace film tech
“The first person since Walt Disney to believe that technology was going to have an impact was George Lucas.”
Catmull: Assuming you are wrong half the time accelerates mistake correction
“If I know that I'm wrong half the time, that I catch it earlier. I special, I spend less time on the wrong decision. So it looks like the ratio is different. The reality is, I'm just wrong half the time. I think it's important to think that way, and that allow…”
Catmull: Isolating individual credit for team success is a destructive trap
“Asking the question might have been a natural thing, to ask. But trying to answer it is an act of separation. That's the problem with it. Because I'm trying to say, how am I separate from others? And really, I never was. It's like none of this would have happe…”
Catmull: Filmmakers Have a Vested Interest in Competitors' Success
“To some extent, the entertainment industry is, is a different kind of competitive landscape. If you've got a movie out in the theaters, then you would actually like all the other films not to be there because you want everybody to come to yours. But if you don…”
Catmull: Pixar's precursor likely would have merged into ILM without Lucas's divorce
“We probably would have ended up as part of ILM.”
Braintrust Discussions Must Focus on the Problem, Not Egos
“Well, one of them is the discussion is always about the topic. It isn't about who's right.”
Ego-Free Creative Flow Happens Only Once or Twice Per Pixar Film
“And once or twice per film, then magic happens. By magic, I mean that ego has left the room. You have these intense discussions, and somebody can say something, and it doesn't work, and they're not thinking about, my idea wasn't there. They're always back on t…”
Catmull: The Rescuers Down Under was first feature where every frame went through computers
“It is the first motion picture where every frame went through the computer. Was using the paint system that we had developed under contract for Disney.”
Catmull: Bob Iger visited Pixar completely alone after becoming CEO
“Bob, Decided to come up as soon as, you know, he was made the CEO. He came up to Pixar, and, ah, the idea was to spend a day with us, ah, seeing what we were doing, how we thought about things, and what we had in the works. And when he came, he walked up our w…”
Catmull: Roy Disney initiated contact with Pixar to modernize studio
“Roy, when he, when now he came in, because he's part of the rescue of Disney as this possible takeover, He's the one who said we need to bring some technology into the studio because we're stayed. He's the one that initiated the contact with us at Pixar.”
Catmull: Publishing research openly enabled NYIT to attract top graphics talent
“We also published everything and part of this was the realization that the people that we wanted were the people who wanted to be part of the bigger community. At this time, the computer graphics community called SIGGRAPH was just starting, And they wanted to …”
Catmull: George Lucas Shared Lucasfilm Technology to Advance the Film Industry
“But he also wanted to share it. So the fact that we would say this is how we're doing editing or there are graphics techniques or audio. Was what he wanted. He was trying to affect the industry as well as build tools for himself.”