Mr. Edutainment (Adam Fairhead) writes daily notes (since 2017) about making and marketing your ideas, creativity, storytelling, and leading a creative-led business for over 20 years. Artist and family man at heart.
I noticed today that I shoot photos in the same way I draw art.
As though there are a set of “rules” I adhere to, that reflect how I see the world.
Not sure exactly how to describe it, yet. Tell a story, capture a moment. Subdued colour, cosy melancholic. Let focus spring out in colour like creativity and life do, from anywhere, almost as if spotted by accident.
Anyway, since noticing it, I decided to share the “recipes” from my camera, in case you’d like to try them out too.
They’re for Ricoh GR cameras, and can be programmed into U1/U2/U3 for easy access.
Quiet Life is my everyday colour recipe: natural colour, earthy tones, softer highlights and enough richness for colour to stand out when the world offers it.
Quiet Mono is the black-and-white counterpart. Deeper blacks, lots of greys and a little more emphasis on shape, without turning everything into ultra-gritty street photography.
They’re on the My Ricoh GR Recipes page if you’d like to check out the settings.
“Rock music isn’t meant to be perfect” — Ozzy
If you make music, include the imperfections that let us feel like we can hear the instrument, not just the music.
If you make art, include the double strokes and black-outs that hide mistakes, that let us feel like we can see the ink, not just the lines.
If you make words, write like you talk, so we can hear your voice and your personality, not just Grammarly-perfect prose.
If you make software, ship with with your opinions, not an MBA’s take on what “right” is, so we can feel your hand guiding us, not another Jira-clone.
Perfection was never the goal.
“Can’t” is a dirty word.
Think back to when you were six. When the future was wide-open, and you could be anyone or anything.
That version of you might not have thought you “can’t” do certain things. You’d just need to “go do” the thing.
I like that version of me.
I like that version of you too. Listen to them. They know stuff.
The iPhone Duo was announced today.
Very cool technology.
Now you can watch Netflix and doomscroll at the same time.
But will that advance your craft, or advance your vices?
Where possible, I try to invest in the things that will make me more creative, and suppress the things that steal that time and capability away from me.
That means I won’t be buying a Duo.
But it begs the question: if you were to spend that kind of money, what could you spend it on instead that would make you more creatiev, or to suppress the things that steal that time and capability away from you?
You don’t need to spend a penny for the thought exercise to reveal some interesting ideas.
“It’s very difficult to be very lazy. It takes a lot of imagination to do nothing and you have to be sufficiently self-confident not to have a bad conscience. You have to have a taste for life, so that every minute is complete in itself and so you don’t have to keep saying ‘I’ve done this or that.’ You need strong nerves to do nothing. Being lazy also means that other people’s opinions don’t matter. Nor does the idea of always having to prove yourself.” — Françoise Sagan
I like to create every day. It engages me to work on my skills, to have creating as essential to a day as eating or sleeping.
But this quote nevertheless inspired me.
Not to be lazy. But to notice the difference between “getting to” create because it engages me, and “having to” produce to quiet some sort of insecurity.
One is very healthy. One is not. Worth thinking about.
People seem to be growing increasingly politically charged about the products they choose and the brands they associate with.
Three camps seem to have emerged:
Camp 1: Burn all the baddies. This camp will forgo tools that improve their craft in favor of a political stance. I understand the thinking. But making yourself worse to spite them, doesn’t spite them, only yourself.
Camp 2: Reasonably avoid the baddies. This camp will make smart choices when choices are presented. They’ll shop based on what’s good for their craft, and good for their soul. But they won’t get caught up in the political opinion of every employee of every brand they buy from, knowing that will only lead to buying nothing at all.
Camp 3: I don’t care. This camp just doesn’t care, and will use whatever advances their cause, come what may.
I think we all get to choose where on the spectrum we operate. I’m in “Camp 2”, for instance.
But perhaps more importantly, we all get to choose where on the spectrum our own brands operate, as that dictates what camp we attract to our own work.
It’s a psychographic that continues to grow, and one worth pondering.
Something marketing folks need to rediscover:
Not every marketing act must be empirically self-liquidating.
Picking up the phone instead of silly phone trees, with a smile that can be heard down the line? It just looks more expensive… and you can’t draw a direct line to “it kept a customer who was thinking about leaving, but after everyone else had annoying phone trees and you actually picked up the phone, you became the top choice again”…
…But it doesn’t stop that from being the case.
People aren’t “tidy” enough for the economist’s view of brand building to be the best way to build a brand.
Some of my favorite writers rarely write.
Some write a lot, but many others use pictures, videos, music, other mediums.
If you love exposing yourself to new ideas, don’t stop at words. Seek out art. Listen to experimental music. Wrestle with what the creators are trying to say.
You may find a whole new world of ideas opens up to you that you didn’t know existed.
I sold my DJ equipment last week.
It was really emotional, seeing it go. Original vinyl equipment, beautifully looked after.
Sad, but mixed with a sense of optimism that they’ll see live music halls again in the future.
I’m not done with music. But I wasn’t serving that equipment by holding it back from experiencing more environments it was made for. As my mediums are now online, with cartoons and playable experiences, it was time to say goodbye to the decks.
As creatives, we should honor our tools, and give them the opportunity to create great things. And we should honor ourselves, and give ourselves the opportunity to create the right things for us.
Creating is always an intimate experience with our tools, so it’s hard to say goodbye when we part ways with tools we love. But we have to say goodbye eventually, and it being difficult is a sign we’re deeply invested in our craft.
Thanks for everything, decks. Fly.
Disney’s greatest work came from when animators led the company, making and selling cartoons, profitably, so that they can make and sell more cartoons, which made fans happy.
Like a car that produces its own gasoline while driven.
Disney became “safe and boring” when businessmen led the company, making and selling cartoons, profitably, so that they could make returns for investors, which made those investors happy.
Like a car that keeps stalling due to its own gasoline being redirected from the engine before it gets a chance to combust.
The sad thing is, the former version would probably be a safer investment.
This isn’t shade on Disney.
It’s a reminder to let artists lead.
Something that’s always irked me about online education:
Education is not the same thing as “giving the answers”.
If “giving the answers” were it, school would last one day. One big pile of books with answers in them. Done.
But that’s not an education. That’s just a pile of information.
Education is where teachers create the conditions for learning to happen. The student does the work, and learning is the byproduct.
If you want to learn, you need to learn forward and participate, wrestle with challenges, and find success through your own efforts. Yes, even online.
If you want to improve code, ask a machine, or a person who can think like a machine. That’s what programmers do.
If you want to improve art, ask an artist, or a person who can communicate through images and sounds. That’s what artists do.
What you probably don’t want to do, is try to improve art by thinking like a machine.
Because while code gets better when it conforms to spec like things that came before it, art does not.
This is why we see so many tech firms dumbfounded by the pushback around generative visuals, wondering why people “feel nothing” when, to a machine, it looks the same.
Because it doesn’t feel the same.
For creative spirits building sustainable brands, I think one of the most important “laws” in the book, “The 48 Laws of Power” is ““Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For”.
Without that law, we’re lulled by VC-flavored culture of “bigger is better”. More followers, products, revenue… “more”.
We’re tricked into thinking a webpage isn’t worth taking the time to make enjoyable for readers, like this comic-strip product update from Teenage Engineering. Nevermind that it invests in the culture of their crowd, further endearing current-and-future buyers to the brand. Why bother when you could just have a sterile, AI-generated update page instead?
We’re tricked into thinking a restaurant shouldn’t stop at one location, like The Den in Shibuya Tokyo. Nevermind that its known the world over for their strongly-held beliefs about Omotenashi (hospitality) that are precisely why people talk about it in the first place. Why bother being loved when you can just have a copy-paste experience just like everywhere else instead?
Remember the mark you aimed for.
Don’t trade it for what others think you should have aimed for.
It’s a lousy trade that costs your dreams.
Silly is underestimated by serious people.
And that’s pretty silly.
Silly is seen as careless, empty, clownish, or something “the intern that didn’t stick around” brought to the table.
Silly should be seen as playful (like people we like), confident (like people we like), energizing (like people we like), and remark-able (like products and ideas we like).
Mascots. Charming error pages. Product demos that feel like tiny adventures rather than slidedecks. Cartoons that use inside-jokes and culture to make their points faster than whitepapers, while building relational equity along the way. A founder that doesn’t look like every other founder on LinkedIn ever.
We want our brands to have personalities like people our audience would like to be around. We want our brands to share products and ideas like those our audience would like to be around.
Perhaps it’s time to take silly seriously.
“Content” can be a nasty little word sometimes.
It reduces creativity to “something that goes into something else.” Jam in a jamjar, or dog waste in a plastic bag, doesn’t matter. “Content.”
So what is a “content creator”? Someone who fills things with other things. They create evidence of measured output.
Compare that to “artist”. What’s an artist? Someone who creates works of art. They create evidence of care, creativity, and a point of view.
On that basis, what do you want more of to represent your work and reasons to check it out?
Evidence of measured output?
Or evidence of care, creativity, and a point of view?
Since knowledge creation is accelerating at such a rate, it surfaces a question we should have been focused on more in the past:
What’s worth knowing?
We used to read more books, listen to more podcasts, read yet more books, more more… because more knowledge is… better?
But now, it isn’t.
In 2026, ~10% of active web pages are AI generated. ~50% of published articles are AI generated. 79% of images posted on visual social platforms are AI generated. Even 57.5% of web requests (ie people reading this stuff) are bots. The machines are outnumbering us in both creation and consumption.
It leaves us with the question: what’s actually worth consuming, now?
The answer may be to re-read the things you already have that are making a measurable difference, just to meditate on their ideas.
The answer may be to be hyper-critical of your sources, moreso than ever.
Or to distill your learning to the highest quality options.
Or to the ones that suit your personality best.
Or are designed to move you.
Or some combination of the above.
It’s time to be more discerning. Machines took over the median, the average. That’s not where humans belong. Not anymore.
Never been more excited to be involved in the education space than I am now.
“You need to let little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” — Andy Warhol
I found this in a book, “Life in the Sloth Lane, Slow down and smell the hibiscus”, a coffee table book we have on… our coffee table (my wife loves sloths).
It may be true of sloths.
It may also be true of Apple, when they decided to make the Apple II.
Or maybe of Teenage Engineering, when they decided to make the OP-1 Synthesizer.
Or maybe of Braun, when they decided to make the (silent) AB 1 alarm clock.
Or maybe you, when you decide to pursue that niche interest with such infectious enthusiasm, that we can’t wait to try it just so we can get infected, too.
Infected is a good word for it. Infect people.
Why did Apple’s latest Mac Mini ad create such a stir?
People thought it was AI generated, but it wasn’t.
Apple showed the world a behind-the-scenes video exposing the production process.
Some cheered for human creativity.
Others sneered, saying AI could have done it, trying with their own tokens.
I know which “side” I’m on, but the “side” isn’t the point.
The point is: it being human-made made it remark-able. If it was generated, it would not be.
And commercial creative’s job is to be remark-able.
I talk to quite a lot of entrepreneurs.
You’d be surprised how many are very, very, very distracted.
“Should I get that other smartphone? I’ll watch hours of reviews about it.”
“Should I get a Mac mini for local LLMs? I’ll spend weeks reading reviews about it.”
“Should I be getting into watches or something? I see people on Twitter doing it.”
“I should stay ahead of the competition by watching more video podcast interviews.”
What’s much rarer, I find, is folks simply staying focused on their own thing.
Falling in love with the place they work, the thing they’re building, the future they can make with their hands.
And that’s great news: the bar is low for you. Focus up, champ.
Build in affiliation and status into your project.
Folks have lots of reasons to buy, go to, or join something…
But behind those reasons often lies affiliation and status.
Why do people buy iPhones? Affiliation with the blue-bubble crowd and other Apple enthusiasts. Status of feeling like a modern, creative professional who can afford it.
Why do people buy things from Mr. Edutainment? Affiliation with others who think growth should be fun, and aspiration alignment in pursuit of a fresh exciting brand of their own. Status of wanting being seen as someone for whom their ongoing development is high priority, career prestige, and ahead of the game in modern leadership.
Why do people buy your thing? There may be some clues in your your answer to those two ingredients.
“Thanks for the thoughtful questions, and for the quick response!”
I copy-paste’d this from an email I received the other day. It stood out to me because I hear it a lot.
It’s a reminder:
1: Most people don’t ask thoughtful questions. If they did, it wouldn’t be worth making a remark about.
2: Most people don’t respond quickly. If they did, it wouldn’t be worth making a remark about.
When you truly care about what you’re making, you show up to it with care, regularly.
Thoughtful questions and quick responses are, you might say, natural expressions of those things.
There’s a bonus reminder:
3: The bar is low. Most simply don’t care enough, regularly enough.
If they did, it wouldn’t be worth making a remark about.
Someone asked me, “Do you ever think about having a day off from publishing daily?”
Which rhymed with a question I had before, “Do you keep it up daily because you’d hate to break your streak?”
The funny thing is, neither!
Publishing daily has two benefits:
1: Having ideas to share daily exercises your idea-having muscle. I like to keep that muscle strong. I write scripts, build worlds and curriculum, make experiences… these are all things that benefit from a strong idea-having muscle!
2: Shipping is a habit that is easily broken. If you fall out of the habit — maybe shipping something every couple of days instead of daily — you’ve already halved your “exercise” and output.
Daily is better.
If you’re a competitive, testosterone-fuelled go-getter, you may never have visited the Sanrio website before.
Give it a quick peek.
On it, beyond the cute characters, you’ll see endless — endless — collaborations.
With brands you might deem competitors (like Tokidoki). With brands you might think are vying for the same discretionary dollars (like Loungefly). With brands you might think have nothing to do with a Hello Kitty audience (like Formula 1).
And yet there they are. Why?
Too many brands think that great experiences are zero sum games. That for us to win, they must lose.
But Sanrio disproves this outright: instead of competing, we can collaborate. We can make things together, and actively promote those joint ventures to our respective audiences. Each audience becomes aware of the other, each grows, and everyone finds something they like. Everybody wins.
Next time you think about your competitors, think of them as future collaborators. Watch what it does to the way you show up in the market.
“For Crocs, Niles represents a long-term strategy in storytelling meant to deepen the emotional connection with consumers in ways that extend beyond any single product launch, campaign or collaboration. Niles is more than a mascot – he is a character with his own personality, voice, perspective and ambitions,” — Terence Reilly, chief brand officer at Crocs.
Niles is a big green crocodile character, based on the croc graphic on the side of their shoes.
I love it.
Storytelling and deeper connection with consumers are essential vehicles for transmitting education, ideas, vision, and belief.
Whether you’re teaching kids how to count, or how to look after your feet, a big green crocodile is plenty qualified.
Hopefully, they use the opportunity well, and let him be more than just a two-dimensional shoe spokesperson.
If you’re creating for a specific audience, a persona one-sheet isn’t enough.
It never was.
Understand their problems. Goals. Fears. Wants. Secrets. Listen what they listen to, read what they read, watch what they watch. Try to think how they think. See the world through their eyes. Like a “method actor” who tries to become the character they represent on-screen, off-screen, for maximum appreciation of their responsibility.
If you think it sounds extreme, it’s likely just because you haven’t tried it, and seen what results it produces.
For instance, my “StrategyComics” product immerses company stakeholders in a story specifically to make the insights as easy to understand and remember as possible. It’s the same sort of thing: immerse yourself in the world of those you wish to serve, so you can operate from a place that resonates with them.
It’s not extreme… it’s our responsibility, if we’re to put ourselves in a position to make experiences designed to help them.
If you want your brand to inspire creativity in humans, don’t phone in your creative to AI.
If you want to be seen as a luxury vehicle brand, don’t put Spider Man trailers on the dashboard.
If you want your brand to educate children, don’t price it out of reach of their parents.
If you want to appeal to any demographic, don’t represent the opposite of what they believe in.
These branding mistakes are happening in real life, right now.
The bar for excellence has never been lower.
Your industry all uses a certain app that doesn’t suit your workflow?
You don’t have to care. Do you.
Your industry decided AI needs to be used for everything, but you don’t want to?
You don’t have to care. Do you.
Your industry thinks something is fundamentally right or wrong, but you disagree?
You don’t have to care. Do you.
Your industry works at a certain pace, and that pace isn’t your preferred pace?
You don’t have to care. Do you.
In the 17 years since I started my business, I can’t think of many things I completely agree on with any of the industries I touch.
And yet here we are, 17 years later, profitable, and happy.
Do you.
“There’s no market for that idea.”
Dear friend, have you ever opened eBay?
People buy the wildest things all the time, every day.
Don’t focus on if there’s “no market” for an idea.
Focus on your wild ones. Make things for them they’ll love and look forward to.
There’s a market for that.
There’s a faster path to “more” than “more”.
When you enjoy creating and shipping great work, it’s only natural to want to do more of it.
But “more” is more easily achieved by cutting, than by additional raw effort.
Parts of the process that didn’t need to be there.
Parts of the deliverable that don’t change the recipient’s experience.
Every part of the process of creating that slows you down, or doesn’t pull its own weight in the value or delight of those you create for.
Cut those parts out.
Even if you’re unsure, try cutting them out anyway. If they’re important, they’ll come back to you and let you know about it. They’re good like that.
Cut.
I queued for the original iPhone.
I queued for the original iPad.
I don’t queue for things anymore.
When Apple meant something… when it told a story about revering artists, thinkings, makers, doers… that story was worth queuing for.
And buying the story just so happened to come with a small black rectangle as a souvenir.
It doesn’t mean anything anymore, and so I don’t queue.
Those affections now lie with more nuanced things, like specific japanese brush pens I can’t get enough of, as they continue to tell a story that resonates with me.
Clearly, Apple is doing fine. But most of us don’t benefit from trying to glean insights from multi-trillion dollar strategies. Most of us benefit from seeing what moves people, what stories they tell themselves, what change they seek to make, and equipping them with that, instead.
Then perhaps they’d like what we make as souvenirs along the way, too.
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!