Quotes of the Week
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. – Alan Kay
What we truly need is a life we’re not trying to escape, a life where play and joy are woven into our everyday work, allowing us to experience deeper fulfillment and uncover the breakthroughs we’ve been searching for. — Chase Jarvis
Do or do not. There is no try. — Yoda
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. — Helen Keller
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. — Marcus Aurelius
Music of the Week
Jumbo Shrimp Jazz Band was recommended in a recent Axios New Orleans newsletter. The band “performs in New Orleans jazz clubs from Bourbon Street to Frenchmen Street and never fails to bring a hard-driving rhythmic energy, musical spontaneity, and a fresh sense of playfulness that delivers the music straight into the 21st century.” Listening to their album Prawn Shop highlights how the band blends “early New Orleans R&B, surf rock, funk, gypsy swing, punk, pop, Caribbean music, TV theme songs, commercial jingles, or whatever suits the moment.”
Article of the Week
“Skyrocketing demand, limited supply, price gouging and monopoly accusations. And a customer willing to pay almost anything. Welcome to Swiftonomics” from Welcome to ‘Swiftonomics’: What Taylor Swift Reveals About the US Economy explains the mind-blowing popularity of one of the greatest musical artists of all time.
“I never cared about money. In the end there are so many people when they die that say, ‘I wish I had done this, I wish I had done that’. But when I die I’m gonna say ‘I got to do this. And I got to make all the movies I wanted to make” from Francis Ford Coppola: The Entrepreneur explains the roller coaster life of one of the film industry’s most original filmmakers.
“Spend less time listening to people explaining how the next version of some model is going to change everything all at once, and instead directly observe what people are doing with the versions of the technology they have access to right now” from The Perfect Cheating Machine? shares how we are using AI at work.
“Michael is loyal as s—. If you are in his circle, you are in his circle. A tribe is the best way to describe it” from Michael Jordan: A history of flight is a long profile of one of the true greats in the game of basketball.
“Letting go of the outcome and focusing on the joy of the process will more often lead to breakthroughs” from Never Play It Safe: 7 Levers to Unlock Your Creative Potential gave me countless ideas on how to unleash my inner creativity.
“For private-equity investors, the strategy is: Roll up businesses to create larger players and improve their margins by adding managerial know-how, back-office efficiency and beefed-up marketing and recruiting budgets” from America’s New Millionaire Class: Plumbers and HVAC Entrepreneurs was timely as I am currently going through a few renovations at my house.
Book of the Week
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace may be the best book I read this year. Just wow! Catmull and Wallace’s book is a business book providing an “all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made.” Creativity, Inc. dives deep into how its beloved films like the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out came to be and shares the “ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable.”
Podcasts of the Week
I knew I wanted to dive deep into Ed Catmull and Pixar while reading Creativity, Inc. so podcasts were the medium I chose. Catmull is an incredible interviewee. Here are podcasts with Catmull I enjoyed How Pixar’s Ed Catmull and Pete Docter make magic on and off screen, Pixar’s Formula For Storytelling Success & Emotional Persuasion w/ Founder Ed Catmull, Pixar’s Ed Catmull: Throw out your rules, Building Pixar with Ed Catmull, Creativity Inc.: The Autobiography of the founder of Pixar, Ed Catmull: Creative Lessons from Lucasfilm to Pixar and Beyond, Pixar Co-Founder Ed Catmull On The Art & Science Of Creativity, How To Do Your Best Work, Bring Out The Best In Others & Lead, Ed Catmull, President Of Pixar, on Steve Jobs, Stories, and Lessons Learned, and Ed Catmull (Founder of Pixar).
