Ben and James discuss masks and Twitter’s decision to delete tweets about COVID-19. Links Zeynep Tufekci: Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired — The New York Times Ben Thompson: Unmasking Twitter — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Compaq and Coronavirus — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Zero Trust Information — Stratechery China’s Decision to Leave Asymptomatic Patients off Coronavirus Infection Tally Sparks Debate — Caixin Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Books and Blogs — Stratechery Why It’s So Freaking Hard To Make A Good COVID-19 Model — FiveThirtyEight Hosts   Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard … Continue reading Episode 184 — Good is Better than Perfect

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Episode 184 — Good is Better than Perfect

Ben and James contrast U.S. and China’s response to the coronavirus, and the choices facing society about how to handle information. Links Ben Thompson: Apple’s Earnings, Slowing Services Growth, Apple and the Coronavirus — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Economic Power in the Age of Abundance — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Corona Virus Whistleblowers; NBA Salary Cap Decreases; Apple, Benefits, and Risks — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Disney and COVID-19, The Coronavirus IPO, In Defense of Twitter — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Zero Trust Information — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Internet and the Third Estate — Stratechery Hosts Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, … Continue reading Episode 183 — A Search for Everything

Episode 183 — A Search for Everything

Ben and James discuss the FTC’s decision to block the acquisition of Harry’s Razors, the DTC market, and the difference between being a monopoly and being too big. Links Ben Thompson: Apple’s Investor Warning, Foxconn’s Investor Warning, An Interview with Dan Wang — Stratechery Daily Update | Daily Update Podcast Ben Thompson: Email Addresses and Razor Blades — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Dollar Shave Club and the Disruption of Everything — Stratechery Ben Thompson: First, Do No Harm — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Local News Business Model — Stratechery Ben … Continue reading Episode 182 — Scale Scale Scale

Episode 182 — Scale Scale Scale

Ben and James discuss Ben’s new Daily Update Podcast, and why Exponent is not on Spotify. Then, should regulators roll back acquisitions or prioritize the avoidance of unintended consequences? Links Ben Thompson: The Daily Update Podcast — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Rationale Behind the Daily Update Podcast, Podcasts and Email, Spotify and the Three Bens — Stratechery Daily Update Ben Thompson: Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Spotify Earnings, Podcasts and Lifetime Value, The Ringer Acquisition — Stratechery Daily Update Ben Thompson: First, Do No Harm — Stratechery Ben Thompson re: Facebook Acquiring Instagram in 2011: Twitter Eric … Continue reading Episode 181 — Competing with Spotify and Regulating Acquisitions

Episode 181 — Competing with Spotify and Regulating Acquisitions

Ben and James eulogize Professor Clayton M. Christensen Links Clayton M. Christensen: How Will You Measure Your Life? — Harvard Business Review Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Clayton Christensen Passes Away, Professor Christensen and I, Kobe Bryant and Measuring Your Life — Stratechery Daily Update James Allworth, Karen Dillon, and Clayton M. Christensen — How Will You Measure Your Life? Hosts   Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review   Podcast Information   Feed iTunes SoundCloud Twitter Feedback

Episode 180 — It’s Been a Week

Ben and James discuss whether mobile and hyper-scale clouds are the natural endpoint for this stage of technology, or if new companies will ride new paradigm shifts to replace Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Links Ben Thompson: The End of the Beginning — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Obsoletive — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The End of the Beginning Follow-Up, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, Venture versus Productive Capital— Stratechery Daily Update Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital — Carlota Perez Ben Thompson: Bubble Talk, Revisited; It [Wasn’t] 1999; The Big Tech Basket — Stratechery Daily Update The Structure of Scientific Revolutions — Thomas … Continue reading Episode 179 — The Water We Swim In

Episode 179 — The Water We Swim In

Ben and James discuss the downsides of monopoly, and Apple. Then, why there is no absolute answer when it comes to integration or modularization, and why different approaches require different types of organizations and different types of leaders. Links Ben Thompson: Integration and Monopoly — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Cost of Monopoly — Stratechery John Gruber: 16-Inch MacBook Pro First Impressions: Great Keyboard, Outstanding Speakers — Daring Fireball Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Why Microsoft’s Reorganization Is a Bad Idea — Stratechery Hosts   Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review … Continue reading Episode 178 — More Ergonomic

Episode 178 — More Ergonomic

Ben and James discuss the origins of the First Amendment, what a culture of free expression means, and Facebook’s ad policy. Links Ben Thompson: Tech and Liberty — Stratechery Randall Munroe: Free Speech — xkcd Pat Kerr: Why I think xkcd is wrong about Free Speech — Medium Ben Thompson: The China Cultural Clash — Stratechery The Federalist Papers : No. 84 — Yale Law Rep. Ocasio-Cortez questions Mark Zuckerberg on when Facebook will fact check — YouTube Jon Gertner: The Very, Very Personal Is the Political — The New York Times Magazine United States v. Alvarez — Casetext Julia … Continue reading Episode 177 — Principle Stacks

Episode 177 — Principle Stacks

Ben and James discuss how the Internet’s impact will be like the printing press’s, and what that means for how we should think about Facebook. Note: We apologize for the slight audio discrepancy between Ben and James Links Ben Thompson: The Internet and the Third Estate — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Zuckerberg’s Speech, Facebook Versus China, The Structure of Free Expression — Stratechery Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — And Inevitable Fall — Stratechery Perry Link: China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier — ChinaFile Mark Zuckerberg Stands for Voice and Free Expression — Facebook The Federalist Papers: No. 47— Yale … Continue reading Episode 176 — The Second Estate Era

Episode 176 — The Second Estate Era

Ben and James discuss the NBA and Apple in China and the long-term implications of doing business with authoritarian governments. Links Ben Thompson: The China Cultural Clash — Stratechery r/HongKong: List Of Companies Under China’s Censorship Orders (So Far). Credit To U/Lebe — Reddit Sam Dastyari Quits As Labor Senator Over China Connections — The Guardian Rejected three times due to fear of Beijing, controversial book on China’s secret influence will finally be published — Business Insider Ethan Strauss: Can Steve Kerr and the NBA do better on China? — The Athletic Ben Thompson: Apple Pulls Hong Kong App, Tim … Continue reading Episode 175 — The Abyss Stares Back

Episode 175 — The Abyss Stares Back

Ben and James discuss Facebook from multiple angles, including child sexual abuse material, encryption, Oculus, and a leaked all-hands meeting.   Links Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? — New York Times Ben Thompson: Child Sexual Abuse Material Online, The Problem With Community, Towards More Friction — Stratechery Casey Newton: Read The Full Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s Leaked Internal Facebook Meetings — The Verge Ben Thompson: Facebook’s All-Hands Leak, Facebook Versus Warren, Zuckerberg’s Culture — Stratechery Attorney General Bill Barr Will Ask Zuckerberg To Halt Plans For End-To-End … Continue reading Episode 174 — Distracted at Facebook

Episode 174 — Distracted at Facebook

Ben and James discuss Cloudflare and what it is like going through an IPO, as well as what has gone wrong with WeWork.   Links Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Cloudflare’s S-1 — Stratechery Daily Update Ben Thompson: AWS and the Impact on Venture Capital — Stratechery Ben Thompson: WeWork Delays IPO — Stratechery Daily Update Ben Thompson: The WeWork IPO — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Why WeWork Isn’t AWS — Stratechery Ben Thompson: What Is a Tech Company? — Stratechery Hosts   Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review … Continue reading Episode 173 — The Exponent IPO

Episode 173 — The Exponent IPO

Ben and James discuss WWDC keynote and why it was so important for Apple to move past the iPhone.   Links Ben Thompson: Apple’s Audacity — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Apple’s Middle Age — Stratechery Letter from Tim Cook to Apple investors — Apple Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery Updates to the App Store Guidelines — Apple Ben Thompson: Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple — Stratechery Hosts   Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review   Podcast Information   Feed iTunes SoundCloud Twitter Feedback

Episode 172 — Game of Phones

Ben and James discuss the U.S.-China trade war and the fundamental issues facing both countries generally and tech specifically. Links Ben Thompson: China, Leverage, and Values — Stratechery We Were Pirates, Too — Foreign Policy How China Uses High-Tech Surveillance to Subdue Minorities — New York Times Ben Thompson: The Pollyannish Assumption — Stratechery Ben Thompson: More on Values (and Facebook) — Stratechery Daily Update Ben Thompson: Open, Closed, and Privacy — Stratechery Hosts Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review Podcast Information Feed iTunes SoundCloud Twitter Feedback

Episode 171 — An Intra-west Debate

Ben and James discuss the Zoom and Slack IPOs in the context of Microsoft’s current success and long-term challenges. Links Ben Thompson: Microsoft, Slack, Zoom, and the SaaS Opportunity — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The State of Technology at the End of 2018 — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Google Fights Back — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The End of Windows — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Microsoft’s Earnings, Microsoft’s Growth Opportunities — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s Strategic Clarity, An Interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Cost of Developers — Stratechery Ben Thompson: Google Fights Back — Stratechery Geoffrey Moore: … Continue reading Episode 170 — A Perfect Meal

Episode 170 — A Perfect Meal

A podcast about tech and society, hosted by Ben Thompson and James Allworth

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Exponent

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