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 22 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
Catmull: Steve Jobs developed empathy and a sense of humor during 1991-1995
“I would say from 91 to 95 was a dramatic change in him as a person. He became more empathetic and caring. He paid attention to people. You actually begin to see him having a sense of humor.”
Steve Jobs underwent a dramatic personal transformation between 1991 and 1995
“I would say from 91 to 95 was a dramatic change in him as a person. He became more empathetic and caring. He paid attention to people. You actually begin to see him having a sense of humor.”
Catmull: Jobs predicted Toy Story's IPO would force Disney to renegotiate
“Which was that when the film comes out, then Michael Eisner will realize he's just created his worst nightmare, because with two more films, you know, the deal's over with, but now we're a free and independent company, and so we then become a competitor. So St…”
Cunningham: Steve Jobs's real vision was pivoting Pixar to storytelling
“When Pixar was founded and when Steve acquired that company, it was a computer, was not a storytelling company like it is today. It was a big, what we used to call a rendering engine for graphics, and I think that Steve was certainly very visionary to acquire …”
Catmull: Detaching contributors from their ideas makes creative feedback work
“For me, the magic means that people throw out ideas and they're not attached to them. If they help and they're accepted, good. If they don't help and they're not used, that's okay too, because you're not attached to them. And what we're trying to do is to figu…”
Catmull: 'Toy Story' subject was chosen due to computer graphics limits
“The film focused on toys because toys are all on flat surfaces and they're made of plastic. So it's easier to do. So some of what drove the topic was the limitations of what could even be done with computers at the time.”
Catmull: Organizational Nimbleness Should Not Be Standardized Across Teams
“In the case of nimbleness, it turns out that different groups have different notions of how to be nimble. And I like the fact that they've got their own approaches to it because they're going to bring something to the table. Without a notion that is always goi…”
Catmull: Pixar's Braintrust could suggest ideas but never override directors
“What they were supposed to do was to point out the problems, discuss it, make suggestions, but they couldn't tell people how to solve the problem. They couldn't override the director, and all this frankly was just to get it so that the director was free to lis…”
Ed Catmull: Creative processes have no permanent recipe or stable equilibrium
“There isn't the recipe. There isn't that sweet spot and you get there and you've made it. This stuff is fundamentally unstable. There is no stable point. You have to keep doing this over and over again, and it's always different. You go down a path and you rea…”
Catmull: Disney and Pixar barred shared production work to prevent internal competition
“You could not do production work for the other. But on the other side, you could beg, borrow, and steal ideas from each other. Because we did not want them to be an existential threat to each other. We wanted them to have a good relationship and want the other…”
Catmull: Leaders harm organizations by believing they must always know the answers
“The most damaging thing is if the leader thinks their job is to be right and to know the answer, well, you're kind of shutting things off when you think that way.”
Catmull: True partnership in negotiations requires funding half the costs
“Steve realized that it wasn't a matter of getting a good deal over somebody else. You actually need to think of them as equal partners. So in order to do that, We have to be able to put up half the money for the films so that we can genuinely say, coming into …”
Ed Catmull: Smart teams with the right trajectory outperform experience
“Don't assume that you have to have all this experience to get something done. If you get some smart people who are in the right arc, they can do more than you expect.”
Catmull: Steve Jobs negotiated Pixar's three-picture deal with Disney
“So at this point, Steve, recognizing the advantage that was there, came in and negotiated with Pixar to do a three-picture deal with Disney.”
Steve Jobs bought Pixar betting on long-term graphics over immediate business models
“Steve Jobs did believe that the potential for graphics was going to become important in the future. Steve wasn't saying, I know how to make a business out of this right now. This is going to be of value in the future, so let's figure out what we do to get ther…”
Catmull: Pixar relied on exponential computing growth before unit economics worked
“We put together what we thought was a long-term plan because we knew that underlying this industry was the exponential change in computer power and that the economics were not right and wouldn't be for several more years. But we had a plan to get ready for it,…”
Catmull: Disney expected animated films to have five to seven songs
“At Disney, all the films should be musicals with five to seven musical numbers and a funny sidekick.”
Hoffman: Pixar's IPO raised $140M and surpassed Netscape
“The listing raised a hundred and forty million dollars for Pixar and beat Netscape as the biggest IPO that year.”
Luxo Jr. was the first 3D computer-animated film nominated for an Oscar
“It was also the first three-D animated computer film to be nominated for an Oscar.”
Catmull: Pixar went public one week after Toy Story's release
“So sure enough, when the film came out, it was a big success. One week later, we went public.”
George Lucas spun off Pixar due to his 1983 divorce settlement
“Meanwhile, Lucasfilm was put under financial strain by George's 1983 divorce settlement. Although Ed's computer graphics division was making huge strides in technology, it wasn't making money for its parent company, so George made the decision to spin it off.”