From the studio

Articles.

Essays on creativity, play, AI, and the long view, from the seam between disciplines.

August 7, 2026
What Original Music for a Game Costs
We publish our price ranges for original game music and explain the five factors that decide where a project lands inside them.
August 7, 2026
Finding the First Task You Should Automate
A four-part screening test for picking your first automation, plus the arithmetic that tells you whether the task is worth paying to automate at all.
August 7, 2026
What a Custom AI Chatbot Costs in 2026
Our published price ranges for AI chatbots and agents, what separates a few-hundred-a-month widget from a $30,000 build, and how to tell which one your business needs.
August 7, 2026
Where AI Fits in a Small Law Firm
The four places AI earns its keep inside a ten-person firm, plus the arithmetic we use to decide which task is worth automating.
August 7, 2026
What a $2,000-a-Month SEO Retainer Should Buy
The five things a retainer at the bottom of our range should still cover, and how to tell when you are only paying for a monthly report.
August 7, 2026
WordPress or Next.js: How We Decide
We build and maintain both stacks, so here are the six questions we actually use to pick one for a project.
August 7, 2026
Website Costs in 2026: The Ranges Nobody Publishes
Our four price tiers for websites, the multipliers that move a project inside them, and why page count is the wrong thing to ask about first.
August 7, 2026
What a Book Cover Costs
Our published range for cover design, the three pieces of work behind it, and the two tests every cover has to pass.
August 7, 2026
KDP Book Formatting: What Print-Ready Means
Print-ready is a specific technical standard, and this is the checklist a file has to pass before KDP will print it.
August 7, 2026
What an Audiobook Costs to Produce
Our published range for audiobook production, how it converts to the per-finished-hour figure quoted elsewhere, and the four things that decide where a book lands.
January 7, 2026
Human Flourishing at Civilizational Scale
An overview of energy, longevity, governance, and the transition to a civilization designed for human flourishing across millennia.
August 4, 2025
Why AI Amplifies Human Creativity
AI as a creative multiplier — what GitHub's Copilot study, METR's developer-productivity research, and the cognitive-offloading literature actually show, and how augmented creative teams are pulling ahead.
April 16, 2023
What Play Does to Creative Ability: Five Mechanisms from the Research
Cognitive flexibility, divergent thinking, problem-solving, flow, and collaboration — five mechanisms by which games measurably feed creativity, with the research that points to each.
February 4, 2023
Lucid Dreaming as a Creative Practice: MILD, WBTB, and Dream Yoga
An introduction to MILD, WBTB, reality testing, and the Buddhist tradition of dream yoga — three induction methods and a wisdom tradition.
February 4, 2023
Flow: Five Conditions for Getting In and Staying In
How to recognize, enter, and stay in the state of complete absorption Mihály Csíkszentmihályi called flow.

Articles.

What Original Music for a Game Costs

Finding the First Task You Should Automate

What a Custom AI Chatbot Costs in 2026

Where AI Fits in a Small Law Firm

What a $2,000-a-Month SEO Retainer Should Buy

WordPress or Next.js: How We Decide

Website Costs in 2026: The Ranges Nobody Publishes

What a Book Cover Costs

KDP Book Formatting: What Print-Ready Means

What an Audiobook Costs to Produce

Human Flourishing at Civilizational Scale

Why AI Amplifies Human Creativity

What Play Does to Creative Ability: Five Mechanisms from the Research

Lucid Dreaming as a Creative Practice: MILD, WBTB, and Dream Yoga

Flow: Five Conditions for Getting In and Staying In