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.
Is a $200,000 Birkin bag expensive? After all, it only costs $800-1,400 to produce. It’s a $1k bag with a $199k story attached to it. What’s the story? For its target market, it’s the feeling of being a better, more important, higher status individual than everybody else around them. A Rolls-Royce Phantom sells the same story for $500,000. A whopping $301k more expensive story than the Birkin, yet designed to achieve the same feeling. For the target market, the Birkin...
The desk is brown. The coffee is going cold. The notebook is open. The magazine is creased. The monitor is dusty. If we held onto every piece of information, our minds would explode. Our brains are excellent at “thoughtfully forgetting” information, holding on to only that which is most obviously pertinent to our wellbeing. Good stories are the exception. We remember our spouse’s birthday because it has a story associated with it. It could be, “I love buying them a...
We humans don’t think in facts. We feel in stories. People edit their photographs because the story they tell themselves about their lives matters more than an accurate representation of what happened. People universally hate movies where “the dog dies” because the feeling spoils the rest of the movie. They can’t get into the movie anymore, therefore it was bad. People gladly pay $9.99 + free shipping, but almost never pay $5 + $5 shipping. People can’t remember a series...
People are messy and contradictory. They think they’re logical, while being emotional. They think they’re buying utility when actually buying status, or the other way around. Carefully evaluate whether a $6 book is worth the money while sipping a $6 coffee they didn’t think twice about. This is news to brands. While they articulate features, stats, charts and frameworks, “but wait, there’s more”-ing themselves into marginalized obscurity, people don’t give them a second look. Not because the brand didn’t have...
When I started using the Internet, people didn’t come here for riches. They didn’t “create content” to lure you into a “funnel” to pitch products at you. They didn’t chat with you purely to evaluate whether or not you’re a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). They didn’t contribute to things only because there’s an invoice at the end. We used to create together for the joy of making a “web” worth visiting. We all made it better, together. We used to...
How we see ourselves changes how we see our work. For instance. I think of myself as an artist. So when I’m leading my team, I see it as an artist, leading a team. I show up differently because of it. I draw my ideas, treat conversations like a canvas everyone can make a mark on, and look for opportunities for art to lead in the work we make. Or when I’m writing code, I write code as an artist,...
I was chatting with my neighbor in the lane today. We’re both fairly tech-savvy, using technology extensively in our projects. And it reminded me that there are always more than one way to go about things, even when you think the path is obvious. His tech-savvy led him to automating his entire home. Everything, controllable from his phone. It’s very cool. My tech-savvy led me to minimizing tech as much as possible. From having being so exposed to it, I...
I’ve long been an advocate for daily rituals. Such as this daily journal, for instance. It doesn’t take long, but it gives myself — and others — a glimpse into what goes on in my mind. Here’s another daily ritual worth thinking about: A daily thank-you note. To colleagues, employees, customers, relatives… and if you’ve exhausted all those, strangers. It’ll make us more thankful people, while making someone else’s day. Like any daily ritual, I like to commit to doing...
Making growth fun is a passion as well as a business, for me. In case you enjoy free comics and insightful takeaways from great books, you might enjoy taking a peek at the latest changes to m newsletter: https://mredutainment.com/growthcandy Each issue includes a comic skit to remember the lesson, coupled with an illustrated breakdown of a topic, complete with illustrations of the book author being covered. Take a peek. It’s enjoyed by thousands, and I’d love for you to join...
List the projects you have on right now. If you had to kill one of them, which would it be? Why did you choose that one? Okay. Now do it again, out of those that remain. Which would it be? Why did you choose it? Do it again. Hmm. Three projects — important projects — just got axed. With justification. Why are you doing those projects, again? Would it be better to focus on those that remain, instead?
When a company you like buying from does something you don’t like, what do you do about it? We have two choices. I use the computer I use because of what I want to make with it, not because of what I believe. Same is true of my notebooks, pens, books, all of it. Because I value my ability to create over my ability to agree with everything who make those tools. The alternative would be to look for another...
If most people publish average ideas… Run average campaigns… In average businesses… With average levels of care… …And that’s what AI is trained on currently… What should you expect to receive if you ask it for ideas or production support? Worth thinking about.
There’s a subtle difference between perfectionism and growth: Perfectionism: Make, see how it could have been better based on your thoughts, scrap what you did to make that instead, repeat. Growth: Make, ship, see how it could have been better based on feedback, make that next, repeat. Which are you doing?
When you have a product to sell, you can either: One: Photoshop the packaging to make it look more desireable than it actually is. Two: Improve the product so you need not photoshop a thing. Fast food companies are renowned for being in the former category. And you’re welcome to join them, if you’d prefer to make a many sale today in exchange for many disappointed customers. Or you can be the second kind, disappointing yourself today in exchange for...
There are two types of notebook users. One: People who love reading about notebooks, buying notebooks, comparing paper quality, deliberating about the brands that make them. Two: People who write and sketch liberally into their notebooks. The first kind loves the thing. The second kind loves what they make with the thing. No right or wrong. But it’s worth noticing which you’re being.
“Wedding photographers outraged by amateur who offered to pay couples to shoot their big day.” Some see this as “A race to the bottom gone wild.” I get it. But I see this as “A keen photographer committed to starting their portfolio and photographer career, in a climate where such jobs are far from guaranteed, so are thinking outside the box to make it happen.” I fully support that kind of mindset. Nevermind the naysayers. Go get it, bud.
A lot of folks are talking about ‘software brain’ again. Data. Databases. Everything is data, in databases. Methodical, organized, controllable.. Who controls the database controls everything. Yada-yada. But software brain is a choice. Organizing things that way is a choice. A popular choice, but a choice. On the flip side, you could (for instance): Think on paper, not in apps. It’s messy, unstructured, hard to recall. The mess is the point. Plan less. It’s counterintuitive, unproductive. The spontaneity is the...
We’re at a crossroads. When AI can generate an image that looks like what’s in your head… Like what you’ve seen before and want to see again… We get a choice: Choose to engage a creative who will bring a new perspective, a new idea, a new take on an old theme Just take the generated image, advance nothing, and not care one bit But it’s not so simple. Creatives will worry about people choosing Option 2… But the problem...
Between 2005 and 2019, the number of words we speak out loud to another human reportedly fell by nearly 28 percent. The pandemic likely made it even worse. More connected than ever. Less connected than ever. We think smartphones keep us connected. What if they’re keeping us apart?
Why are shiny new-and-improved things exciting? Whatever the reason, I don’t share it. We’re told we’re supposed to want new-and-improved. But there are a few issues with that: new-and-improved may not be better than what you do now new-and-improved may not be more reliable than what you do now new-and-improved may not be more proven than what you do now new-and-improved may not justify the switching costs new-and-improved may be change for the sake of change new-and-improved is just a...
When the camera happened, artists were supposed to be doomed. Yet there are still many artists. More, even. When the smartphone happened, photographers were supposed to be doomed. Yet there are still many photographers. More, even. In the moment, when a new thing happens, things are supposed to be doomed. Yet they continue, often with expansion. Remember that when things feel catastrophic.
Some want to pay less, to get less, while demanding more, and leave for a cheaper option when it comes along. Some want to pay a little more, to get more than they paid for, while demanding less than they got. We get to choose what type of people we want to surround ourselves with, when we put our work into the market.
Your message isn’t what it says on your website. Your message is what those who know you, tell the others. Those are words you may not have chosen. You can’t wordsmith or A/B test that. You can’t un-say what you’ve said. You can’t pretend you’ve done what you haven’t. And that’s part of why those words are so important. Maybe we should focus less on the simple prose we can control, and more on words that spread.
Sometimes, you can get more ideas to explore by prompting an LLM for them. Sometimes, you can get more ideas to explore by sitting with a cup of tea and watching the clouds roll by. The second is less efficient yet, often, more effective. If, that is, you’d like ideas different to those everyone else is having.
Is it pointless, or the point? Some see to street photography as a futile — and often unpredictable — record of banality. Others see it as capturing life itself, an unfiltered record of existence, a mirror to an imperfect world. Some see writing emails by hand as a waste of mental energy and time. Others see it as staying sharp, showing up with care, preferring it over machines talking to other machines all day until we all run out of...
I don’t mind if your email isn’t perfectly formatted. It shows me you cared to write it yourself. I don’t mind if your website copy has a typo in it. It shows me you cared to keep tweaking it to suit those in your care. I don’t mind if your newsletter is slightly inconsistent. It shows me it’s a response to your desire to share great things, rather than merely spewing out slop on a schedule. I don’t mind if...
Moleskine have been a staple of the creative world for decades. They claim to have been for hundreds of years but, tales aside… decades. Writers. Artists. People who want to disconnect from tech and explore their ideas themselves. So it perhaps comes as no surprise when Moleskine announce their latest LOTR collab is, in part, AI generated, that creatives got upset. And I don’t blame them. I also thought it was a strangely tone-deaf take on what most of their...
For a long time, people pursued convenience. “1,000 songs in your pocket” was a hugely desireable idea. More GBs on a smaller SD card. Thinner and thinner laptops, more power. Headphones that don’t even have wires. AI that generates your words. The list goes on. Everything is so, so convenient, if you want it to be. And yet? Physical media sales are up. DVDs, vinyl records, physical books, people are returning to the inconvenient. Because they want to feel something....
If you keep a notebook or pen in your hand, you’ll write or draw. If you keep a book or magazine in your hand, you’ll read. If you keep a phone in your hand, you’ll waste time. The future is in your hands.
My team was celebrated by a client because of the energy it brought to an emergency. Not the fact that they dived into someone else’s emergency and fixed it for them… Not the fact that it was done very quickly and economically… The energy they brought. Chill, calm, organized, happy, kind. Sometimes your competitive advantage is simply being a really nice person.
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!