Hi! I'm Adam, the founder of Mr. Edutainment. I write daily on edutainment, building and spreading ideas, and leading a creator-led business for over 20 years. Artist at heart. Family man in rural England. Subscribe to my newsletter, GrowthCandy, where each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic.
Most of the thoughts I share in this journal never get posted on social media etc. Because the objective of these words isn’t to get likes or attention. The objective of these words is to help me discover what I think, and to share the journey of those thoughts with those who care in the future. Perhaps future-me, looking back on past ideas. Perhaps my son, getting to know what I was thinking about when he was too young to...
We love learning in my household. We’re planning to build a small library into our home once we clear the room out planned for it, and carve some time to carve some wood to make it how we envision it. But it’s not just books (though there are a lot of books). There is also comics. Videos. Little toys that remind us of lessons learned. Pictures we’ve drawn. Photos we’ve taken. Learning is a vibrant, exciting, fulfilling-for-its-own-sake passtime. Something to...
Talk to almost any freelancer. They’ll tell you about the difference between the opportunity, and what shipped. A wonderful, vibrant, exciting possibility, and what shipped. A novel new approach that customer interviews revered, and what shipped. A huge part of making great work is having CEOs that don’t ruin it.
I saw a quote today that tickled me: “The reason RAM prices went up 4x is that a massive amount of not-yet-manufactured memoryh was bought with money that doesn’t really exist to be put into GPUs that haven’t been made yet, to be installed in data centers that haven’t been built, powered by infrasttructure that may never exist, to satisfy demand that isn’t actually there, in order to generate profies that are mathematically impossible.” Fascinating. A fun reminder to not...
We don’t like when big tech talks about what their products will do to writers, or artists, or musicians, because they’re not writers, or artists, or musicians. Artists want to work together to push art forward. We do it all on our own, and we enjoy it intensely. Same for writers. We do it all on our own, and we enjoy it intensely. Same for musicians. I’m not a musician, but I adore watching musicians collaborate and advance their genres....
My team uses Basecamp because all of the work is in one place. Our marketing uses Brevo because all of the email and customer data is in one place. Our animation pipeline uses Toon Boom products because everything from storyboard through to compositing is ine one place. Our codebases use standard syntax and structure because every developer who touches it finds it easy and familiar. Our scripts are written in .fdx files because every scriptwriter knows what to do with...
The funny thing about the list of things on your mind right now… Is if you were to write them all down… And cross out the ones that don’t directly impact the heart of your work or those you love… You may just find that the list reduces by 90%. Just from asking one question. Isn’t it better to focus on just those things, then?
Agencies love interns and junior talent because they have fresh eyes with fresh ideas, unburdened by memories of what got shot down, what clients won’t go for, and what the market “expects nowadays”. What they overlook is, we should all remain that way anyway. What use is your contribution if you’re happy to be neutered by every negative experience along the way. If you can, try to be like a junior with experience, not like a war veteran afraid of...
Great artists don’t draw all day. They draw a lot. When they’re tired of that, they read about drawing. When they’re tired about that, they think about drawing. When they’re tired of that, they do something else. All in service of their craft, for its own sake, and for those they toil for. It’s okay to put the pencil down so long as the fire keeps burning.
Lean into your craft for long enough… and you’ll find you disagree with every one of your heroes on at least something. This can feel disheartening at first. Lonely, even. Then you realize it’s your voice taking form. Your point of view. An expression perhaps worth sharing, a by-product of your tenure in the space. Lean into it — it makes you our brethren, instead of merely our fans.
The things you’re deliberating over… Reading reviews about online… Umming and arring about… Do they make your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better? If not, why not ditch the evaluation and just focus on making your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?
If a toddler draws a picture, then AI “improves” it by generating a lifelike version of the drawing… does that make the drawing better? Or does it steal a gift from that child away from you. Or rewrite history as we lose evidence of their growth, perspective, and effort. Or remove the desire to improve in a skill that computers “will just do better anyway”. What if the generated lifelike version of the drawing removed the art, by removing the...
What do you do when there’s zero feedback? The best thing I’ve found is to… just not care about the size of the response. Most of the things I’ve made that did well took a minute for others to understand. They were novel… different… and that means less competition (good) but also slower time to “get it” (bad). So we have to either make peace with periods of zero feedback, or make peace with grueling, never-ending, fierce competition. No right...
Life is too short to merely follow all the rules, do your job, pay your taxes, and pass away. Much too short. Forget the rules. Forget the status games. Forget the comparisons and trinkets and nonsense. Make your thing, love your people, and forget those still caught up in the nonsense. Life is simply way, way, way too short.
What makes a great tool? A premium notebook that’s so pretty you daren’t write in it… or a cheap notebook so quick to scuff that you enjoy using it and throwing it around? Software that’s slick and minimal, but does half the things you need with bugs to fix… or software that’s old and clunky-looking, but does everything you need with bugs long fixed? An e-reader that holds thousands of books but needs replacing as the tech ages… or a...
What do we do when “new and improved” isn’t working? When videogames get ridiculous prices and bloated with in-app purchases, enthusiasts produce gems like “Goldeneye X” to add their favorite improvements to their favorite old games. When car manufacturers pepper their new offerings with subscription extras and annoying beeping features, enthusiasts turn to renovating their old rides and sharing an appreciation for vintage. When big tech offerings become ad-laden, ai-stuffed and pricier without any improvements actual customers want, enthusiasts turn...
I was fortunate enough to be laughed at by some of the kids, back in highschool, around 2002. It meant I learned to do my thing (back then it was making comics, videogames, animations, and card games) and putting some of them on my website for free, and others in my backpack to sell on the schoolyard. Some laughed, said they were lame, thought it was silly, and questioned why they’d buy things from me when they could go and...
If you make your price cheap because you think it’ll win more customers, beware. The moment someone else is cheaper, they’re gone. Because they bought you on price. Do you want to be bought for price? Or do you want to be bought for value, novelty, relational equity, contribution, status, or any number of other reasons? Most of them are a race upwards, to provide more value, more novelty, more contribution, etc. Only price is a race downwards, to zero....
One of the gifts AI has given real artists, is the ability to see our art more clearly. Before generative tools existed, we just thought of art as the whole thing - the process, the product, the person, all kind of mixed together. We never questions the component parts, or their relation to one another. Why would we? But now generative tools exist, widely rejected as artists in favor of “making our own art”, we get to question what exactly...
We should write more. Draw more. Make more. Not because it’s for a project. Just “because”. For the hell of it. Because when we’re gone, it’s all that remains. And those who love us might really thank us for leaving more of ourselves behind for them to cherish.
One of the things my mum taught me, was how to enjoy today while fighting for tomorrow. Live today like it’s the last one, don’t sweat the things others sweat. This is all thats guaranteed, so enjoy it and be happy. And Fight today like you’re going to fight and fight and fight for many many years to come. As more problems come, fight those too. You’ll know when it’s time to stop. I don’t know if she knows she’s...
Life’s long until it isn’t. For every craft you pursue, remember to enjoy it for what it is today. For every project you work on, remember to enjoy what it looks like today. For every client you work with, remember to enjoy the work as it is today. For every recruit you hire, remember to enjoy them as they are today. If you can’t do that, maybe they’re not for you. Because life’s long until it isn’t.
Mascots are back on the rise. Duolingo’s participatory, contextual expressions that transcend the app to the icon itself. Pepsi bringing back Coke’s polar bear to anthropomorphise rivalry. Apple’s ‘Little Finder’ to promote the Neo to Gen Z. They’re back. Because they’re full of personality, let people direct relational equity to that personality, form bonds and feel like they’re entering a world, not just buying a product. I’ve been advocating for mascots since forever. This isn’t an “I told you so”,...
“I can develop sites without a developer!” says the designer. “I can design sites without a designer!” says the developer. “I can write site copy without a copywriter!” says both of them. “I can generate the whole thing without any of you!” says the site owner. All of them are both right and wrong. They’re right, in that it’s possible to marginalize every area they lack in taste or mastery, with slop. They’re wrong, in that it’s impossible to know...
If you need the perfect idea, you’ll never start creating. If you need the perfect notebook, you’ll never start sketching. If you need the perfect writing app, you’ll never start writing. If you need the perfect script, you’ll never start acting. If you need the perfect anything, you might be focused on the wrong thing. Maybe “slightly better than today” is actually the better path. Maybe “slightly better than today” compounds over time. Maybe that compounding effect is the closest...
People think the tools keep changing yet the skills you use with them stay the same. But I love when the opposite is true. When the tools grow old, and the skills stay new. In art, you get used to a certain pencil from a certain store… a certain notebook in a certain size, certain paper, certain cover… yet the act of creating art is forever new. There’s always more to learn, more to practice, more to master. In writing,...
I wear a wristwatch I was given for Father’s Day. It was my dream watch when I was in my early twenties. You can pick them up for about £25 on eBay (depending on condition). It’s priceless to me. Not just because it was my dream watch. But specifically because of who got it for me. Other people have different dream watches. Most of them won’t share my dream. They’ll all tell the time “the right way” for them. Yet...
There are two stories being told, when you build something. The first is the story you tell others. Every product, service and project is a story. The way we express it and connect with it is a story. If something isn’t working, consider looking at the story, and see what might want to change there. The second is the story you tell yourself. Every creator tells themselves a story. The way we relate to the work we put into the...
Why do you take photos? Sony’s Xperia 1VIII launched with an “AI Camera Assistant” that suggests entirely new, generated compositions of your pictures. That way, you don’t take photos. You take prompts. Prompts that generate images that may be a bit like what you saw, but not really. A library of images similar to the memories you could have captured, if you where to have taken photos instead. That feeling of “wait, that misses the point of taking photos” is...
We rarely create with a blank canvas. Normally, the canvas has certain expectations before the first brush stroke is made. And those expectations can be wonderful for creativity. I thought of this while perusing a gardening magazine this morning. The rising temperatures in the UK, mixed with pricing challenges and wild weather, is causing huge disruption across gardens across the country. Some are electing not to bother with their gardens anymore, astroturfing the problems away. Others are seeing opportunity for...
I create a newsletter called GrowthCandy. Each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic. Fast to read. Easy to apply. Hard to forget!