They should be remaking bad movies ... and fixing them

Wise talk from Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation studios, on what he's learned:



Gems (paraphrased):

1. Give a good idea to mediocre people and they'll muck it up; give a mediocre idea to good people and they'll fix the idea, or throw it out and get a good one.
2. A movie or product isn't just one idea, it's thousands, and most of them need to be done right for you to succeed, so you need a good team
3. People are always remaking good movies; they should be remaking bad ones that were based on good ideas, but poorly executed
4. People and how they function is more important than ideas
5. It's very possible to misunderstand the reasons for your success
6. What's important are the things that affect behavior

Plus insights into why people don't like to do post-mortems, gaming "the system", communication structure vs company structure, and why successful companies fail.