On Complacency and Success

“Steve Jobs hired him, says Bird, because after three successes (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2) he was worried Pixar might struggle to stay innovative. Jobs told him: ‘The only thing we’re afraid of is complacency—feeling like we have it all figured out.’”

Posted on April 17th, 2008 in Interesting

Join the Conversation

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Interesting To Us

“With the experiment, Kadokawa is betting it can score points with the anime faithful and win over new fans overseas where it might sell DVDs, downloads, and other paraphernalia. But there’s no guarantee the goodwill will pay off.”

“The code you check-in during your 14th hour at your desk will not be as good as what you checked in during your 4th.”

Retro Olympic logo tees.

“Despite the media’s anxiety about fallen female executives, women are actually advancing in high technology.”

I haven’t decided whether it’s sexist yet, but the game looks cool.

“Alfred Mosher Butts died in 1993, meaning that under current law, Scrabble will be protected under copyright until 2063. And yet, if Scrabble was treated under the copyright law it was initially published under, it would have come out of copyright in 1994.”

“Star Trek Online universe. From the looks of things the Federation is a force to be reckoned with.”

Giraffe Labs (now in our old office space next door) gets some local press. (What… no mention of us as the first tech folks in the building??? )

“Players will be given the option of creating a good or evil character in DCUO, each with a possible dozen unique characteristics, such as power type (ice, fire, mental, sonic), power source (ring, elemental), and movement type (flying, speed).”

“Most Internet entrepreneurs and their funders are identical to real-estate speculators…”

“Without promotion, the shows are getting fewer than 10,000 views, no better than when we last checked in on the series, after nine episodes. Assuming that Cook’s publisher Penguin and the sponsor Dodge are paying the production costs for “Foreign Body,” which run $10,000 an episode, they’re paying a $400 CPM–pretty high, by anyone’s standard.”

“GM, historically among the nation’s top two advertisers, dropped to fourth last year with estimated measured and unmeasured ad spending of $3 billion, according to Ad Age estimates. Of that, $2 billion was measured media, including $197 million for online ads…”

Awesome illustrated maps from Katherine Baxter.

Cool retro gif animations.

Fonts as people.

$1.99 Vintage Ephemera Market.

Local write-up on the Seattle Startup coffee penny pinching discussion.

100,000 Kryptonians are looking for a place to live.

“Serious Sans is a more professional take on Microsoft’s much-maligned Comic Sans typeface.”

“At some point, some product’s going to come along and cannibalize the “World of Warcraft” player base, and if it’s going to happen, it’d be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it.”

Every Lego set. Evar!

Beautiful vintage site.

“But if you’re thinking about something that doesn’t result in lethal force, that’s more tricky. It’s really hard for people to get their heads around, I think. To be that good, to not actually lethally injure anyone, requires an extremely high level of skill that would take maybe 15 to 18 years to accumulate.”

“Why see The Dark Knight in an Imax theater? As P-Funk front man George Clinton once succinctly explained to us, ”Cuz that shit is motherfuckin’ huuuuuge.’”

Not getting enough Christian Bale?

“But getting people into a soap habit, it turns out, is surprisingly hard.” [thx mom]

Jackson Fish Market is Hillel, Walter, Jenny, as well as Alex, Luke, and Tyler (for the summer) creating handcrafted software experiences in Seattle, Washington.

Where did our name come from?

Our blog is about creativity, user experience, high quality software and content, attention to detail, innovation in advertising, and starting a small independent business.

Branded Software Experiences Whitepaper (for Brand Marketers and Ad Agency Professionals)

Branded Software Experience Index

...through 1,203 posts and 518 comments.

goutham: http://www.flickr.com/groups/f lickrhacks/discuss/72157606557 946184/#comment721576065751227 96
Ben: This is so true. But I have not seen many managers encouraging developers to go home after 7-8 hours either....
lfmorgan: was hoping to find what it means to find A Balance of Top Down and Bottom Up That Works Best—hey we...
Nelle Steele: the journal of management may have some relevant articles: Results 1-2 of 2 found for venture in Full...
Sean Murphy: I think the way you have framed the question is not the choice that founders face. The real test is not...

Mailing List

Categories

Sites We Like

Adam Smith, Esq.

Anthropology and Economics

Bubble Generation

Design Observer

Founder Frustrations

Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog

Influential Interactive Marketing

Lightspeed Venture

Re-Imagineering

Signals vs. Noise

Smashing Magazine

Things Magazine

Thrilling Wonder

Wheaties for Your Wallet

Subscriptions

Log in