Change and Randomness

One of the books I am reading currently is Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, and current president of Disney Animation and Pixar Animation Studios. In the book, he talks about how he went about managing a creative company like Pixar and all the challenges he faced and the solutions to them. In the most recent chapter I read, titled “Change and Randomness”, Ed talks about how he dealt with inevitable random events that cropped up throughout the creative process of making films and managing an ever-growing team of creative individuals. The heart of the chapter is the idea that learning how to invite randomness helps to push the creativity even further, and that fearing it is never the right move if you want to learn and grow a company. He says,

Change is going to happen, whether we like it or not. Some people see random, unforeseen events as something to fear. I am not one of those people. To my mind, randomness is not just inevitable; it is part of the beauty of life

Though the book has a particular emphasis on management, I think the ideas presented can be applied to many other aspects of life, which is why I want to talk about the chapter in this blog.

The Unknown Roadmap

Up is by far one of Pixar’s most emotionally rich films, with compelling characters and a deep story. However, it didn’t start like that. The film went through many changes throughout its development, as Ed outlines in the chapter.

The first iteration had a floating castle in the sky in which lived a king and his two sons that couldn’t stand each other, and a tall bird that would help the two princes get back to the kingdom after they fell to the Earth beneath them. The second iteration introduced an old man, Carl Fredrickson, whose lifelong love affair with his childhood sweetheart Ellie was summarized in a short prologue at the set the tone for the rest of the film. After her death, Carl strapped a bouquet of balloons to his house, which lifts-off and lands on a Soviet-era dirigible. Carl also realizes he has a stowaway, an eight-year-old cub scout called Russell. The third and fourth iteration introduced the character Charles Muntz, and a bird (from the first version) that laid magical, youth-prolonging eggs, which was later removed from the storyline.

The point here is that Up had to go through many changes that unfolded over years. The director, Pete Doctor, who also directed Monsters Inc., says,

It wasn’t until I finished directing Monsters Inc. that I realized failure is a healthy part of the process…If I start on a film and right away know the structure - where it’s going, the plot - I don’t trust it. I feel like the only reason we’re able to find some of these unique ideas, characters, and story twists is through discovery. And, by definition, ‘discovery’ means you don’t know the answer when you start

The idea that struggling and failing is part of the process is a very uncomfortable thought for most people, but as Pete and Ed put it, it is necessary for great results. In life, remember that not having the answers right away isn’t a cause for concern, and can in fact lead you to greater rewards down the line. Keeping your options open and experimenting with different variables and choices will allow you to eliminate the things that don’t work, and help you reach the best case scenario in most instances. It is important for you to understand the unknown is an opportunity for you to make great things happen, as long as you allow yourself the freedom to fail and try again.

Things are Complicated Sometimes

When the British introduced golf to India in the 1820s and built the first golf course, the Royal Calcutta, they ran into a problem. The monkeys living in the surrounding trees would swoop down onto the fairways and run off with the golf balls. Officials tried to erect fences, but the monkeys would jump over. They tried relocating the monkeys, but they kept coming back. They even tried loud noises to scare them off. Nothing worked. Eventually they decided to add a new rule: “Play the ball where the monkey drops it”

Randomness has been studied extensively by scientists and mathematicians for centuries. We know it plays a role in our lives, but in a very abstract sense. We acknowledge its existence when we talk about lucky breaks, being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and good days and bad days, but it remains a very difficult concept to truly understand. We are much better at looking at patterns in sight, sound, interactions and events in the world. Our brains aren’t wired to even take randomness into consideration when analyzing the world around us. Hence, it has less of an impact on our consciousness than things we can see, measure and categorize.

If you leave for class later than usual, but still arrive early, you’d pat yourself on the back. Little do you know that someone else behind you got stuck at the intersection waiting for the light to turn green. From this event, you draw the conclusion that you can afford to sleep-in a little more the next day, completely ignoring the random events that you narrowly missed. We are wired to make decisions and predictions based on the patterns we see and experience, and ignore the things we cannot see. If you hadn’t got to class on time, you would’ve drawn a different conclusion: Wake up a little sooner.

A Physics principle known as Occam’s Razor roughly states that if there are competing ideas for why something occurs the way it does, we should pick the one that relies on the fewest assumptions and is thus the simplest. Ed relates this to human nature, stating,

we seek what we think are simple explanations for events in our lives because we believe the simpler something is, the more fundamental - the more true - it is. But when it comes to randomness, our desire for simplicity can mislead us,. Not everything is simple, and to try and force it to be is to misrepresent reality

In life, we tend to oversimplify events that are much more complicated than we think. This can be damaging to things such as relationships, mental and physical health, and any goals we want to achieve. Our brains aren’t wired to account for the random events that can drastically change the way things can playout. But this can also be a good thing. Instead of treating randomness as non-existent and bad, we can invite it to the table to fuel our inspiration and the decisions we make along the way. When it comes to creativity, randomness is not our enemy but our friend.

Problems: Big and Small

I said we should allow randomness to take a seat at the table when making decisions, but how do we allow for that? Randomness is not linear, which means it doesn’t proceed along the same course or repeats in predictable ways. The days are linear; the sun comes up and the sun goes down. Another idea, from the world of mathematics, is that of Stochastic Self-Similarity. ‘Stochastic’ means random, while ‘Self-Similarity’ describes a phenomenon of patterns that look the same when viewed at different degrees of magnification. Snap a branch off a tree and turn it upside down, it will look like a smaller tree.

Everyday, we face hundreds of challenges. Some are barely challenging at all: The remote going missing between the cushions, or a bulb burns out in the house. A smaller number can be more disruptive, but hardly: You sprain your ankle, or your alarm clocks fails to go off. An even smaller number can cause large ripples: Someone in your family gets sick, or you don’t get a promotion at work. And just like that, the rarer the problems become. There is no limit to how far this can go, but even though these problems have varying magnitudes, they are fundamentally more similar than we think.

Ed talks about this in regards to a business. He says people have the tendency to treat big events differently than smaller ones. He says,

When we put setbacks into [categories], and use different mindsets for each…We become so caught up in our big problems that we ignore the little ones, failing to realize that some of our small problems will have ling-term consequences - and are therefore big problems in the making

Ed says it is important to have a system that treats all problems with the same set of values and emotions because they are self-similar. When we do this, it allows us to be humble enough to recognize that random things do happen that are nobody’s fault. A great example of this is given in the book. When developing Toy Story 2, the studios first sequel and third movie ever, an employee accidentally deleted 90% of the film off the studios master machine. Everything, from objects and backgrounds, lighting and shadows, character models, and whole sequences of film were all dumped. The team immediately got to brainstorming about how to solve the issue, as they were 10 months away from the release of the film. They thought they could simply restore the data from the backup system, but then realized the backup wasn’t functioning either. Luckily, the movie’s supervising director, Galyn Susman, remembered she had a backup of all the files on her home computer. She had had her second baby about six months ago, requiring her to work from home. The team rushed to her home where they carefully wrapped the computer in blankets and put it in the backseat of their car. They returned it to Pixar’s headquarters and were able to recover the film in its entirety. The film was saved.

In rapid succession, the company faced 3 random events: Deletion of the film, failure of the backup system, and remembering an employee had a copy of the files at home. All of these were unforeseen. But through it all, the team were hyper-focused on a few core things: Restore the film, fix the backup systems, and make it hard for someone to delete any other data files moving forward. Ed says,

Notably, one item was not on our list: Find the person responsible who typed the wrong command and punish him or her…My reasoning went like this: Our people have good intentions. To think you can control or prevent random problems by making an example of someone is naïve and wrongheaded

The ability to stay calm under pressure comes with fully embracing the fact that nothing you do will ever prevent the random from happening, and that all problems are fundamentally the same. You shouldn’t be more afraid of some than others. Whenever you tackle a new challenge in life, or are in the process of creating or chasing something great, understand that the problems that will arise aren’t necessarily one individuals fault. We tend to think all of our problems are due to us (or someone else) being incompetent or unprofessional, as if we don’t belong where we are and don’t deserve what we are chasing unless we can nail every part of the process to get it. This isn’t true. You cannot control everything, but you can develop a way to tackle the issues that arise along any path you choose to follow. This will yield better results in the long-term.

Conclusion

This chapter from the book resonated with me more than any other chapter did. It highlights that not having all the answers right away isn’t a cause for concern, and can lead to better results down the line if embraced. It tells you that oversimplification of certain events can be detrimental, and ignoring random factors can that could occur can hinder success. And finally, it tells us that problems, no matter how big or small, are all created equal, and we should have a framework for tackling each of them equally.