Learning, Education & Growth
How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual
It’s 1985. Nintendo is either about to save the gaming industry or disappear. Everything depends on getting one thing
Designing Learning Experiences
For educators, facilitators, and L&D folks who want things to actually stick.
I've run 300+ sessions - workshops, keynotes, courses, offsites - and I've become slightly obsessed with why some experiences land while others just fill time. These pieces are about the craft of making learning actually work.
Start Here
The essential reads on learning design
Music
What Brian Eno knows about learning (that we've forgotten)
The ambient music pioneer's new theory about art as "adult play" reveals why case studies don't stick - and what does.
Best of...
I struggle horribly as a student. So I rebuilt the class. Here's how.
I had a horrible experience in a class recently. So I tried to figure out why - and what I could do to remedy it.
Best of...
Fitness and Education: from IRL to URL
8 lessons for the new era of learning
Give your social media timelines a cursory scroll and it probably won’
How-To Guides
How I do Morning Pages
The theme of my most recent newsletter was New Wine, Old Oak
[https://howardgray.substack.com/p/adventures-49-new-wine-old-oak];
encouraging readers
Resources
How to create an interactive workshop in Zoom
A step-by-step guide to setting up and running an interactive 90-minute workshop
in Zoom.
Note: This is part 1 of
How-To Guides
Practical playbooks for designing learning
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
A.I.
Pascal's Wager for AI (and why you should bet on Scenario 2)
Dan Hockenmaier just cut through all the AI noise with a simple framework. Here's why his "scenario 2" bet makes perfect sense.
A.I.
The 80-hour reality check: What actually happens when you build with AI
Everyone's talking about AI magic, but what's the messy reality behind actually building something? Here's my 6-week journey through format fails, bad vibes coding, and the breakthrough moments that made it all worth it.
Creative Business
Two ways to define 'Good Enough'
Ever found yourself endlessly tweaking a project, chasing that elusive perfection? Yeah, me too. But here's a thought.
Future Of Work
Soft Skills are dead. Let’s talk Character Skills.
Forget buzzwords—how do we build environments that make developing Character skills exciting, impactful, and irresistible?
Learning Innovation
Why Learning Beats Education (and Why It Matters to You)
Education mandates; learning invites. Discover the key differences and why flipping education into learning unlocks serious growth and fun.
Resources
Tools and templates for learning designers
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All Posts
Everything on learning design and education
Learning Innovation
Don't Interrupt the Game
Two cultures. Same century. Same invention. Both driven by gamblers who refused to stop playing.
A.I.
My A.I stack - February, 2026
Tools come and go. Here's where I've landed on the AI stack - for now.
Learning Innovation
Three types of tough crowd
"Tough crowd."
You've heard someone say this after a gig, a presentation, a workshop. But there&
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
Learning Innovation
Mike Tyson and the accidental punch
The other week I dropped a Mike Tyson quote into a session on adaptive leadership. Didn't think much
Learning, Education & Growth
The thing about teaching A.I. skills
Why most people have it backwards
Creative Business
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it.
Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Learning, Education & Growth
Checkin' Chess at WSJ Doha
Pawn to c3. Knight to f6. Andrew Beaton’s playing chess on stage at WSJ Tech Live in Doha -
Learning, Education & Growth
Worksheets and Worksheets
Dealing with the tension of using physical and digital assets in learning environments
Learning, Education & Growth
How Nintendo taught 40 million people without a manual
It’s 1985. Nintendo is either about to save the gaming industry or disappear. Everything depends on getting one thing
Learning Innovation
Cold Open
We made a 100-year family saga video with AI tools and a laptop. No film crew, no time machine. Cold opens beat long explanations every time.
Learning, Education & Growth
What if business school taught you the wrong skill?
Taylor sent 2,000 applications in six months with her MBA. She can dissect any case study. But the job market needs people who can decide under pressure, not study someone else's choice from 1987.
Howard's Riffs
Is it Sivers? Because this is just one of many options
Derek Sivers once had a voice teacher who made him sing the same song as if it was 4am and
A.I.
The hidden layer in Spotify's CTO's take on AI vs. machine learning
Gustav Söderström's insight reveals why creative professionals need to master the feedback loops AI can't touch.
Learning Innovation
Always do a run-through. No exceptions.
24 hours before our big workshop, we spotted a problem that could've killed the room. One case study had to go. Here's why the final check saved us from disaster.
Learning Innovation
The case for all-age everything: lessons from PBS Kids
I'm shopping for my 4-year-old and keep thinking "I wish they made that in Dad size."
A.I.
Pascal's Wager for AI (and why you should bet on Scenario 2)
Dan Hockenmaier just cut through all the AI noise with a simple framework. Here's why his "scenario 2" bet makes perfect sense.
Creative Business
What happens when you collapse the talent stack?
Adobe's Chief Strategy Officer says the magic happens when designers code and engineers hack growth. But here's what he doesn't say: the specialist roles are about to dissolve.