Greed

There was an article in The New York Times on Sunday that left me steaming. It was about how big investors are frowning on Pixar's upcoming movie, "Up". They're worried that it doesn't have enough commercial appeal. They anxiously note the sparse dialogue, pudgy male lead, lack of a female lead, basically anything that distinguishes it from the rest of today's lowest-common-denominator, mass-market, animated kids' movies. Further, these critics moan that Pixar's last two releases, "Wall-E" and "Ratatouille", have been Pixar's worst performers because their premises have been too obtuse. Those films made a piddly $224 MILLION and $216 MILLION dollars, respectively. Aww, how pathetic.

Now, I have no doubt that Pixar could make more money by making "The Incredibles" over and over and over again. Americans are stupid. They forget that they've seen the same movie a hundred times. They want to see it again. They want to watch cars with huge cartoon eyeballs, then their kids want shoes shaped like said cartoon cars. And there's nothing wrong with that. I understand that cars with cartoon eyeballs are more fascinating to kids than a grumpy old man in a house with some balloons on it.

My problem is that the people who run big business in this country have no respect for art, craft, beauty, progress, integrity, or anything else if there's a penny more to be made by tossing those values aside. How the hell are we supposed to develop as human beings if we just do the same thing over and over, merely because new things are scary and people are more hesitant to buy them?

I decided a long time ago that as an engineer, I wanted to design the coolest, most innovative gadgets and gizmos. The second that I realize I'm designing cheap knockoffs or products that will just barely work until they're out of warranty, because that's how the company can make the most money, I'm looking for a new job.