https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog.html Essays on energy, culture, economics, and the future of work by Michael Carroll. en-us Sun, 05 Jul 2026 23:00:00 GMT https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/ai-movies-music-supply-bottleneck.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/ai-movies-music-supply-bottleneck.html Sun, 05 Jul 2026 23:00:00 GMT Technology Theaters release about 150 wide films a year. Spotify gets tens of thousands of new songs a day. The supply structure of each industry decides which one artificial intelligence can actually disrupt and which one it can't. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/we-thought-retail-was-dead.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/we-thought-retail-was-dead.html Sun, 28 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT Technology In the late 1990s, everyone agreed the internet would kill physical retail. Twenty-five years later, brick and mortar still owns 84% of sales. The story of what actually happened is the most useful lens we have for thinking about artificial intelligence right now. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/leaving-the-country-at-twenty-six.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/leaving-the-country-at-twenty-six.html Sun, 21 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT Travel The first time I crossed an ocean I was twenty-six. The lessons came in two layers. People are mostly the same. And the United States is its own continent, with the kind of internal variety most travelers cross borders to find. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/what-trading-is-really-about.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/what-trading-is-really-about.html Sun, 14 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT Markets Everyone thinks trading is math. From 2013 to 2016 I worked in high frequency trading and futures coverage. The edge wasn't math. It was world news, poker, and psychology. And the fact that bonds still trade through chat windows tells you why. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/read-your-own-pre-read.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/read-your-own-pre-read.html Sun, 07 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT Work Letting artificial intelligence summarize the meeting, write the prep, and take the notes feels like a shortcut. The research says it's quietly making us worse at the part of the job that actually matters. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/aa-is-great-and-not-the-only-way.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/aa-is-great-and-not-the-only-way.html Sun, 31 May 2026 23:00:00 GMT Health I've been sober for almost a year. AA works for a lot of people, and the data is on its side. It's also not the only way, and most of what makes it work has nothing to do with the steps. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-tax-complexity-lobby.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-tax-complexity-lobby.html Sun, 24 May 2026 23:00:00 GMT Policy Americans spend 1.7 billion hours and $31 billion a year doing taxes. That's not an accident. Here are practical ways individuals can route around the lobby that wants to keep it that way. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-best-of-east-and-west.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-best-of-east-and-west.html Sun, 17 May 2026 23:00:00 GMT Health Western medicine writes off acupuncture, tai chi, and turmeric as junk science. The peer-reviewed evidence says otherwise. The smart move is to take the best of both traditions, not pick a side. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/covid-rewrote-the-dating-rules.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/covid-rewrote-the-dating-rules.html Sun, 10 May 2026 23:00:00 GMT Culture The pandemic forced people to invert the typical dating script. Define the relationship first, meet later. The data says it actually worked better. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-problem-with-smart.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-problem-with-smart.html Sun, 03 May 2026 23:00:00 GMT Education When we say someone is smart, we usually mean they remember things and answer questions quickly. That's one kind of intelligence. The research says there are at least seven more, and most of them matter more. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/seven-things-every-religion-figured-out.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/seven-things-every-religion-figured-out.html Sun, 26 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMT Faith Catholic nuns and Buddhist monks independently converged on the same breathing rate. That's not theology. That's data. My book is about what it means and what you can do with it. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/is-college-worth-it.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/is-college-worth-it.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMT Education Tuition has risen 13x since 1980. The average borrower takes 20 years to pay off their loans. But the earnings premium is real. The honest answer depends entirely on what and where you study. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-long-road-to-representative-leadership.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-long-road-to-representative-leadership.html Sun, 12 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMT Leadership Fortune 500 CEOs are 89% male and overwhelmingly white. At the current rate, demographic parity is decades away. Some of the headlines celebrating progress are actually part of the problem. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-date-format-debate.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-date-format-debate.html Sun, 05 Apr 2026 23:00:00 GMT Standards There are three ways to write a date. Most of the world picked one, the US picked another, and the objectively correct answer is the one almost nobody uses in conversation. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-junior-role-is-disappearing.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-junior-role-is-disappearing.html Sun, 29 Mar 2026 23:00:00 GMT Future of Work Entry-level jobs are vanishing faster than anyone expected. If artificial intelligence replaces the first rung of the career ladder, where will tomorrow's leaders come from? https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-tipping-problem.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/the-tipping-problem.html Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:00:00 GMT Culture Restaurants have tried eliminating tips. Servers hated it. But the alternative is a system where 20% of Americans still tip for terrible service. Something has to give. https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/nuclear-has-a-marketing-problem.html https://michaelcarroll.studio/blog/nuclear-has-a-marketing-problem.html Sun, 15 Mar 2026 23:00:00 GMT Energy Nuclear power causes 99.9% fewer deaths than coal per unit of energy. The Chernobyl death toll was a fraction of what most people believe. So why are we still afraid?