Exponent

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 Angwin and Terry Parris Jr.: Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race — ProPublica

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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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 Law
• Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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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 Cook’s Memo, Honesty and Control — Stratechery
• A message about iOS security — Apple
• Ben Thompson: Apple Versus Project Zero, Apple’s Poor Response, The China Paradox — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Privacy Fundamentalism — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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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 Encryption Across Facebook’s Apps — BuzzFeed News
• Ben Thompson: Facebook’s Privacy Cake — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beachheads and Obstacles — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Curse of Culture — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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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

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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

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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

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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: To Succeed in the Long Term, Focus on the Middle Term — Harvard Business Review
• Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Services, Not Devices — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Disney’s recent announcements on streaming and what it says about not just TV but strategy broadly in the Internet era.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Disney and the Future of TV — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Disney and the Value of the Consumer Relationship, Disney’s Consolidation of Hulu, Comcast and AT&T — Stratechery Daily Update
• Disney CEO Bob Iger Unveils Details on Disney+ Streaming Service — CNBC
• Ben Thompson: Airbnb and the Internet Revolution — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why Internet regulation is coming, why it is probably necessary, and how it should be targeted.

Links

• Ben Thompson: A Regulatory Framework for the Internet — Stratechery
• New Livestreaming Legislation Fails to Take Into Account How the Internet Actually Works — The Conversation
• Out of the Clouds and Into the Weeds: Cloudflare’s Approach to Abuse in New Products — Cloudflare
• Unpacking the Stack and Addressing Complaints about Content — Cloudflare
• Ben Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg’s Proposal, The Copyright Directive and Sunk Costs, You Say You Want Some Regulation — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the question of YouTube, why it’s similar and different from Facebook, and why engagement is both alluring and a potential problem.

Links

• YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant — Bloomberg
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Services Event — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg’s Proposal, The Copyright Directive and Sunk Costs — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: YouTube and Toxic Videos, YouTube’s Problematic Incentives, Sins of Omission and Commission — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Pollyannish Assumption — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Wall Street Journal and Apple News, The Problem with Regulating Content](https://stratechery.com/2019/the-wall-street-journal-and-apple-news-the-problem-with-regulating-content-australias-terrible-new-law/)

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Senator Warren’s proposal to break up Big Tech, including why its history is wrong, why details matter, and what needs to be done instead. Plus, Spotify’s antitrust complaint against Apple.

Links

• Senator Elizabeth Warren: Here’s how we can break up Big Tech — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Where Warren’s Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Amazon’s Price Parity Provision, The Amazon Marketplace Question — Stratechery Daily Update
• Five Fast Facts About Apple’s Anti-competitive Behavior — Time To Play Fair (Spotify Website)
• Ben Thompson: Spotify Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple, Spotify and Warren, More Amazon Marketplace Changes — Stratechery Daily Update
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Why Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy tbh — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Value Chain Constraint — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The State of Technology at the End of 2018 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Ends, Means, and Antitrust — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The European Commission Versus Android — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s latest missive, whether Facebook is actually changing anything, and wonder if the company will ever tell the unvarnished truth.

Links

• Mark Zuckerberg: A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking — Facebook
• Ben Thompson: Facebook’s Privacy Cake — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Social/Communications Map — Stratechery
• After an “identity crisis,” Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says he’s taught himself how to be happy again — Recode
• Ben Thompson: The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Open, Closed, and Privacy — Stratechery
• Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed — New York Times
• Zeynep Tufekci: Why Zuckerberg’s 14-Year Apology Tour Hasn’t Fixed Facebook — Wired
• Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Amazon, Walmart, and groceries, Google Cloud versus AWS, and why understanding value chains helps evaluate business opportunities.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Value Chain Constraint — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Walmart’s Earnings, Walmart’s Grocery Business, Amazon’s Grocery Stumbles — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Amazon the Black Swan — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Amazon’s New Customer — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Walmart and the Multichannel Trap — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google Cloud Changes CEOs, Layers of Surprise (or Not), The VMWare Analogy — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Venture Capital and the Internet’s Impact — Stratechery
• Facebook Mulled Multi-billion-dollar Acquisition of Gaming Giant Unity, Book Claims — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple News as it is today, where Apple wants to take it in the future, and why publishers should push back.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Cost of Apple News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Direct-to-Consumer Publishers are Selling — Stratechery Daily Update
• Apple News’s Radical Approach: Humans Over Machines — New York Times
• Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service — Wall Street Journal
• Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
• The Report of the 2020 Group — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Spotify’s move into podcasts and integration and modularity in value chains.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Lessons From Spotify — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Podcasts, Analytics, and Centralization — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Future of Podcasting — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The BuzzFeed Lesson — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple vs Facebook (and Google!).

Links

• Josh Constine: Facebook Pays Teens to Install VPN That Spies on Them — TechCrunch
• Facebook’s Onavo Gives Social-Media Firm Inside Peek at Rivals’ Users — Wall Street Journal
• Ben Thompson: Facebook Versus Apple — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Andrew Bosworth Memo — BuzzFeed

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Netflix, why it is an Aggregator, and why Disney isn’t actually a competitor

Links

• Ben Thompson: Netflix Flexes — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why TV Has Resisted Disruption — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Disney and ESPN Will Be OK — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss open source in a cloud world, how enterprise value chains have changed, and AWS versus Microsoft.

Links

• Ben Thompson: AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: How Google is Challenging AWS — Stratechery
• Satya Nadella on Microsoft — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple’s revenue warning and the company’s shift to services.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Errors — Stratechery
• Letter from Tim Cook to Apple Investors — Apple
• Ben Thompson: Two Bears — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: CES and the Unification of Computing and Consumer Electronics, Google Assistant and Integration, The Modular Competition — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: The Android Detour — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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James and Ben talk about the connection between Jobs to be Done and Aggregation Theory, why the consumer and enterprise markets are so different, and discomfort with big companies like Google.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Aggregators and Jobs-to-be-Done — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Scooter Economy — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Jobs TV Does — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The State of Technology at the End of 2018 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Data Factories — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Slack versus Teams — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Exponent is back, kind of.

Ben and James talk about Apple’s case in front of the Supreme Court, and debate whether the company is acting anti-competitively with its App Store policies.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple App Store Follow-up — Stratechery Daily Update
• Apple Inc. v. Robert Pepper, et al. oral arguments — Supreme Court of the United States
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Middle Age — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Exponent is taking a break, for now anyways. We couldn’t be more grateful for everyone that has given us so much of their time.

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub.

Note: This is the last episode of the season; Exponent will return in the fall

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Cost of Developers — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The End of Windows — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Redmond and Reality — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James continue their discussion on why aggregators and platforms are different and why it matters for big companies, competitors, and regulators.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Bill Gates Line — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Case Against Google — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Why Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy tbh — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James continue to discuss the differences between platforms and aggregators, including Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Uber.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Moat Map — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Books and Blogs — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Zillow, Aggregation, and Integration — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Tech’s Two Philosophies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Casual Gaming is a Sustainable Business, but Not a Platform Differentiator — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the differences between Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple specifically, and the differences between aggregators and platforms generally.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Google Duplex Demo — YouTube
• Ben Thompson: Tech’s Two Philosophies — Stratechery
• Note: The Steve Jobs videos are in the above article
• Ben Thompson: Platforms Versus Aggregators — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Face is Not the Future — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: From Products to Platforms — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss how Apple and Amazon’s focus on the customer experience protects them from low-end disruption.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Divine Discontent: Disruption’s Antidote — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The $550 iPhone 5C Makes Perfect Sense — Stratechery
• GRAPH: The Disruptive Innovation Model — Harvard Business Review
• Louis C K: Everything Is Amazing and Nobody is Happy — YouTube
• Ben Thompson: Why Microsoft’s Reorganization Is a Bad Idea — Stratechery
• Ben Bajarin: Top Takeaways From Studying iPhone X Owners — Tech.Pinions

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Zillow’s shift in business model and the further refinement of Aggregation Theory through the incorporation of the ideas of disruption.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Zillow, Aggregation, and Integration — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Opendoor: A Startup Worth Emulating — Stratechery
• Episode 098: Shattered Glass — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Defining Aggregators — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Truth About Windows Versus the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Books and Blog — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s appearances before Congress, and try to sort out exactly which Facebook issues matter, and which don’t.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Facebook Current — Stratechery
• Zeynep Tufekci: Why Zuckerberg’s 14-Year Apology Tour Hasn’t Fixed Facebook — Wired
• Ben Thompson: Fake News — Stratechery
• The Toutiao Apology — China Media Project
• Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed — BuzzFeed
• Ben Thompson: The Facebook Brand — Stratechery
  There’s Always a Bigger Fish
• 2018 Antitrust and Competition Conference: Digital Platforms and Concentration — Stigler Center

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Microsoft’s reorganization, how Satya Nadella has managed the decline of Windows, and how it applies to Apple and services.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The End of Windows — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Stratechery 4.0 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Services, Not Devices — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Curse of Culture — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Truth About Windows and the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Microsoft’s Monopoly Hangover — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Microsoft’s Reorganization Is a Bad Idea — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Redmond and Reality — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• The Seven-Year Itch: How Apple’s Marriage to Siri Turned Sour — The Information
• Ben Thompson: The Disruption of IBM — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Facebook’s current crisis, and why almost everyone misunderstands what the company did wrong: the problem isn’t advertising, it was Facebook’s desire to be a platform.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• James Allworth: What the F*** Was Facebook Thinking — Medium
• Ben Thompson: The Facebook Brand — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Tim Cook’s Unfair and Unrealistic Privacy Speech — Stratechery
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Reckoning: ‘This Is a Major Trust Issue’ — The New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Good News — Stratechery
• Nicholas Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg Talks to Wired About Facebook’s Privacy Problem — Wired
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss President Trump’s intervention in Broadcom’s takeover of Qualcomm, the problem with patents, and whether or not markets inherently overvalue short-term thinking.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Qualcomm,National Security, and Patents — Stratechery
• Dr. L. J. Hart-Smith: Out-Sourced Profits — The Cornerstone of Successful Subcontracting — Boeing Paper

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Spotify’s F-1, why Spotify isn’t Netflix, and why record companies are doing well even though they are acting sub-optimally.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• James Allworth: Why I’m Not Going Near Spotify (and Why You Shouldn’t Either) — Harvard Business Review
• Ben Thompson: Lessons From Spotify — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Great Unbundling — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Could Spotify Be Netlix — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Spotify’s Increasing Power — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Dropbox’s S-1 and why the company is a success but still a disappointment. Plus, why companies should go public sooner.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Dropbox Comp — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Dropbox’s Cost of Revenue — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Battle of the Box — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Dropbox Leaves AWS — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Does Uber Have a Strategy Problem — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Google’s recent moves around blocking ads and promoting AMP and whether they raise antitrust questions. Plus, why Microsoft couldn’t have stopped Google, and why cryptocurrencies are aggregator kryptonite.

NOTE: The previous version of this episode was not edited in the middle. There is no new content in this episode, but it should be easier to listen to.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Aggregation Paradox — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Case Against Google — Stratechery Daily Update
• Charles Duhigg: The Case Against Google — The New York Times
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Ends, Means, and Antitrust — Stratechery
• Terry Crowley: Complexity and Strategy — Hacker Noon

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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The original version of this podcast included an editing error. The new version is here.

Ben and James answer reader questions. Topics include business school, career advice, the nature of strategy, creating the next Silicon Valley, and how governments should deal with the disruptions caused by the Internet.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Books to Blogs — Stratechery
• James Allworth, Karen Dillon, and Clayton Christenson: How Will You Measure Your Life? — ClaytonChristensen.com
• Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel — W. W. Norton & Company
• Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens — HarperCollins
• Phil Rosenzweig: The Halo Effect — Simon & Schuster

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple’s strategy of monetizing its customer base, how that explains HomePod, and whether or not it is a problem.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Middle Age — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Books to Blogs — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple and the Oak Tree — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Lessons and Questions of the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple is Not a Services Company — Stratechery Daily Update
• NOTE: Apple has taken down the supplemental financial information from Q1 2016 that I referred to on this podcast. You can see the old link in this press release
• Ben Thompson: Is HomePod Late? — Stratechery Daily Update
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Beyond the iPhone — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple at Its Best — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Amazon’s health care announcement and why the industry is so challenging.

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Links

• Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to partner on U.S. employee healthcare — BusinessWire
• Ben Thompson: Amazon Health — Stratechery
• Aaron E. Carroll: The Real Reason the U.S. Has Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance — New York Times
• The Best Health Care System in the World: Which One Would You Pick? — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Amazon Go and what it says about the economics of tech and how Amazon is building multiple monopolies.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Amazon Go and the Future — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Facebook’s algorithm change, the difference between Facebook and Snapchat, and what the company’s motivations might be.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Facebook’s Motivations — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Feed — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Popping the Publishing Bubble — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Defining Aggregators — Stratechery
• Tyler Cowen: A Simple Theory of Moore’s Law and Social Media — Marginal Revolution
• Farhad Manjoo: It’s Time for Apple to Build a Less Addictive iPhone — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the Meltdown and Spectre bugs and what they say about processors, technology, and even society.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Meltdown, Spectre, and the State of Technology — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence — Stratechery
• Nicholas Kristof: Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Disney’s recent history, its acquisition of Fox, Netflix’s power, and why more and more policy decisions are about choosing the worst of two options.

Note: This episode was recorded on Monday, December 18, 2017.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Disney and Fox — Stratechery
• From Intel to Disney — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Why Disney and ESPN Will Be OK — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• The Netflix Backlash: Why Hollywood Fears a Content Monopoly — Hollywood Reporter
• Ben Thompson: The Department of Justice Sues to Block the AT&T-Time Warner Acquisition, The DOJ’s Case, AT&T’s Objections — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why effective content moderation is so hard, how it can be done, and why it sometimes shouldn’t be. Plus, how tech optimists and tech critics make the exact same mistake.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Pollyannish Assumption — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Pollyannish Assumption and Bright Lines, YouTube’s Market Power, Google vs Amazon — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Tech’s Person of the Year; Uber at the End of 2017; Fowler’s True Impact, and Means — Stratechery Daily Update
• The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed — Wired

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the net neutrality debate and why both sides of the issue at hand involve making difficult tradeoffs; the bigger problem is broken governance. Please listen to the end!

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Pro-Neutrality, Anti-Title II — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: “Light Touch”, Cable, and DSL; The Broadband Tradeoff; The Importance of Antitrust — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and Net Neutrality — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Net Neutrality and Zero Rating — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Comcast’s Inevitable Data Caps, T-Mobile Offers Free Video, America Versus Europe on Net Neutrality — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: The Department of Justice Sues to Block the AT&T-Time Warner Acquisition, The DOJ’s Case, AT&T’s Objections — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss IPOs, including those of Stitch Fix, SendGrid, and Blue Apron, and the importance of understanding what type of company you are.

Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visiting WordPress.com/Exponent.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Stitch Fix and the Senate — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why (Most) IPOs are Under-Price — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Waze Winners and Losers — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: SendGrid IPOs — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Venture Capital and the Internet’s Impact — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Blue Apron Files for IPO — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James break down the differences between new market and low end disruption and how they apply — or don’t — to Apple and the iPhone.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple at Its Best — Stratechery
• Apple’s iPhone X Parts Cost $115 More Than iPhone 8, IHS Says — Bloomberg
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beyond the iPhone — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Android Detour — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple and the Oak Tree — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James walk through the history of Stratechery to explain why Facebook is inescapable for a podcast about tech and society.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Tech Goes to Washington — Stratechery
• John Gruber: Blackberry vs. iPhone — Daring Fireball (note: I said on the podcast this was written in 2007; it was written in 2008)
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Revisiting Peak Google, Again — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: More Spectacles Mea Culpas — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Earnings — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Suprising Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Brexit Possibility — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Dollar Shaving Club and the Disruption of Everything — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Tech Goes to Washington — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Facebook Epoch — Stratechery
• Facebook’s Earnings Call — Seeking Alpha
• James Allworth: Founders and Motivations — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Super-Aggregators and the Russians — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why acquisitions should be the focus of tech regulators in the context of Facebook buying tbh today, and Instagram and WhatsApp previously.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Why Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy TBH — Stratechery
• Marco Arment: The Impossible Dream of USB-C — Marco.org
• Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Revisiting Peak Google, Again — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Defining Aggregators — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the structure that leads to gatekeepers and abusers like Harvey Weinstein, and why it is so dangerous to accept as fact that the world was better before the Internet.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Goodbye Gatekeepers — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Gatekeepers Follow-Up, Hollywood and Venture Capital — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: The Justin Caldbeck Affair, The Enablers — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Venture Capital and the Internet’s Impact — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: In Defense of the New York Times — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• As U.S. Confronts Internet’s Disruptions, China Feels Vindicated — The New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Fake News — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Facebook and where both its critics and executives go wrong. It’s time for everyone to consider the worst-case scenarios.

NOTE: We unfortunately had significant audio issues this week on both sides (which, by the way, had nothing to do with the cut cable referenced in the podcast ). Our apologies.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Defining Aggregators — Stratechery
• This is why tech companies won’t disclose content of Russian ads — The Outline
• Ben Thompson: Trustworthy Networking — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• The Barriers Stopping Poor People From Moving to Better Jobs — The Atlantic
• Exclusive interview with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg — Axios
• Ben Thompson: The GDPR and Facebook and Google, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Data Portability and Social Graphs — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the development of theory, why blogs have disrupted books, and why too many in tech are too pessimistic about humanity.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Defining Aggregators — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: More Aggregators — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Books and Blogs — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Twitter’s Marketing Problem — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the different levels of aggregation, Facebook and Russian ads, and why it’s worth defending the future.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Super-Aggregators and the Russians — Stratechery
• Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters’ — ProPublica
• Ben Thompson: Inspired Media — Stratechery
• James Allworth: Technology Has Become Water — Medium
• Sheryl Sandberg on Facebook Advertising Changes — Facebook
• Dollar Shave Club and the Disruption of Everything — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Everything is Changing; So Should Antitrust — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple’s the cellular Apple Watch, the iPhone X and 8 markets, and whether the opening was over-the-top.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Episode 018: Agree to Disagree — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: The Lessons and Questions of the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Cellular Apple Watch — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Apple Watch: Asking Why and Saying No — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What I Got Wrong About Apple Watch — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beyond the iPhone — Stratechery
• Wearable Fitness Devices Don’t Seem to Make You Fitter — New York Times
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Best — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple, Samsung, and the Parable of the Model T — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the why it is Ben can’t stop talking about Aggregation Theory, and the future of regulation.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Episode 016: Naked People (James first trip to Burning Man) — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Everything is Changing; So Should Antitrust — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Ad Agencies and Accountability — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Paypal’s Incentive Problem — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Dollar Shave Club and the Disruption of Everything — Stratechery
• Episode 005: The World Has Changed — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Antitrust and Aggregation — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google and the New America Foundation — Stratechery
• John Gruber: “NYT: ‘Fake Russian Facebook Accounts
  Bought $100,000 in Political Ads’” — Daring Fireball

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the Theory of the Conservation of Attractive Profits, Intel, Netflix, and how it all applies to Disney.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Disney’s Choice — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Disney Follow-up — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Truth about Windows Versus the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: ESPN: From Franchise to Business — Stratechery Daily Update
• Warren Buffett: 1991 Letter to Shareholders — Berkshire Hathaway
• Ben Thompson: Netflix Goes Global — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Correction the Netflix Story — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Disney Shifts to Streaming, Disney Versus Netflix, ESPN — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertisings Surprising Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Benchmark’s lawsuit against Uber and Cloudfare’s ban of Daily Stormer.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Uber Dilemma — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Venture Capital and the Internet’s Impact — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple and the Oak Tree — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Waymo’s Lawsuit Against Uber — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Does Uber Have a Strategy Problem? — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Crisis at Uber — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Cloudfare and Daily Stormer — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Facebook Content Guidelines — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the European Commission’s antitrust ruling against Google and the challenges of antitrust in a world governed by Aggregation Theory.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Ends, Means, and Antitrust — Stratechery
• Episode 005: The World Has Changed — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Antitrust and Aggregation — Stratechery
• Press Release — European Commission
• Fact Sheet — European Commission

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, when acquisitions make sense, and the potential future of antitrust law.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Amazon’s New Customer — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Acquisitions and Network Effects, Antitrust and Network Effects, The Saga of Whole Foods — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery
• Tom Foster: The Shelf Life of John Mackey — Texas Monthly

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the business of podcasting specifically and advertising generally, and why Apple’s recent changes will have less of an effect than people think.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Podcasts, Analytics, and Centralization — Stratechery
• Episode 082: A Podcast About Podcasts — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Patreon’s Update — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple’s WWDC keynote, playing to your strengths, and privacy that matters.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Strengths and Weaknesses — Stratechery
• IAMA Foxconn insider with information on next 12 months of hardware updates — Reddit
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• How Apple’s Siri Lost Her Mojo — Wall Street Journal
• Zac Cichy on Apple and Privacy — Twitter
• Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Tim Cook’s Unfair and Unrealistic Privacy Speech, Strategy Credits, The Privacy Priority Problem — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss myths, culture, and blockchains — and yes, bubbles.

NOTE: The original version had a corrupted file. Our apologies.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Tulips, Myths, and Cryptocurrencies — Stratechery
• Abhishek Chakravarty: The Product Manager’s guide to the Blockchain  — Medium
• Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens
• Fred Ehrsam: Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model — Coinbase Blog
• Greeks are Rushing to Bitcoin — CNN
• Facebook accused of targeting ‘insecure’ children and young people, report says — Mashable
• Ben Thompson: The Cost of Bitcoin — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Selling Feelings — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Google I/O, the importance of business relative to technology, and why Uber is in trouble.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Boring Google — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Go-to-Market — Stratechery
• How Uber and Waymo Ended Up Rivals in the Race for Driverless Cars — New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Does Uber Have a Strategy Problem? — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why figuring out a new model means abandoning the old, this time in the context of newspapers and news.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: The Local News Business Model — Stratechery
• Jim Rutenberg: Ad Buyers Have a Say in Whether Real News Survives — New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Wikitribune — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Why BuzzFeed is the Most Important News Organization in the World — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss how leverage shifts in a value chain, why WeChat is so powerful in China, and why that is a problem for Apple.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Slack and the State of Technology at the End of 2015 — Stratechery
• Connie Chan: When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China — a16z
• Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beyond Disruption — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss whether or not monopolies are good, the differences between education and healthcare, and how to build an economy of the future.

Presented by MailChimp

Links

• Episode 012: The Internet Rainforest — Exponent
• Episode 005: The World Has Changed — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Not OK, Google — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Cost of Monopoly — Stratechery
• How Google Eats a Business Whole — The Outline
• Meet the Google Alum Who Created China’s Facebook-Groupon Mashup — Bloomberg

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss what it means if Facebook is a monopoly, what is lost if it is, and why there isn’t anything that can be done about it — for now.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: The Facebook Epoch — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Cost of Monopoly — Stratechery
• Kurt Gessler: Facebook’s algorithm isn’t surfacing one-third of our posts. And it’s getting worse — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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James and Ben discuss moral hazard and what seems to be going wrong with the U.S. economy, the different kinds of regulation, and how the App Store explains government policy.

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Links

• James Allworth: Prioritizing Economics is Crippling the U.S. Economy — Medium
• Ryne Rohla: Creating a National Precinct Map — Decision Desk HQ
• Jeff Bezos: Annual Letter to Shareholders — SEC
• Matt Stoller: How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul — The Atlantic

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Apple’s Mac Pro screw-up and what it might say about the company and its culture.

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Links

• John Gruber: The Mac Pro Lives — Daring Fireball
• Jay Yarow: Phil Schiller on Apple’s Ad Agency in an Email — Business Insider
• Ben Thompson: Whither Liberal Arts — Stratechery
• Apple iPad Air Ad — YouTube
• Steve Jobs After the GarageBand Demo During the Introduction of the iPad 2 — YouTube
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: From Products to Platforms — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Business on the App Store — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the meaning of artificial intelligence, whether machine learning qualifies, and a platform for dealing with the impact.

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Links

• Chris Dixon: How Aristotle Created the Computer — The Atlantic
• Ben Thompson: The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence — Stratechery
• Dan Primack: Takeaways from Steve Mnuchins Axios Interview — Axios
• Maureen Dowd: Elon Musk’s Billion-Dollar Crusade to Stop the A.I. Apocalypse — Vanity Fair
• The Most Common Jobs in Every State — NPR
• At Blackrock, Machines Are Rising over Managers to Pick Stocks — [The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/business/dealbook/blackrock-actively-managed-
• Ben Thompson: Verizon, AOL, Facebook Instant Articles, and the Future of Digital Advertising — Stratechery
• Episode 012: The Internet Rainforest — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: The Brexit Possibility — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the concept of The Smiling Curve and how it applies to various industries. Then, where value might be found in self-driving cars, and why both Uber and Google are getting it wrong.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Publishers and the Smiling Curve — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Intel, Mobileye, and Smiling Curves — Stratechery
• Episode 012: The Internet Rainforest — Exponent
• “After SO many years of being lost, we finally have Aaliyah’s performance of ‘Try Again’ on Jay Leno. This is RARE as fuck.” — Twitter

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Uber’s recent scandals, and debate whether the company’s business actions can be separated from its culture.

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Links

• Susan Fowler Rigetti: Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber — SusanJFowler.com
• Ben Thompson: The Uber Conflation — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Crisis at Uber, Uber’s Culture, Who is Responsible? — Stratechery Daily Update
• Brad Stone: The Upstarts — Hachette Book Group
• Ben Thompson: Tech Morality — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto, the problem with regulation, and why Facebook needs exactly that.

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Links

• Mark Zuckerberg: Building Global Community — Facebook
• Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Inspired Media — Stratechery
• James Allworth: Founders and Motivation — Stratechery
• The Ezra Klein Podcast: Tim Wu’s Interesting, Unusual, Fascinating Life — Panoply

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James compare Snap and Facebook to Apple and Microsoft, and worry that Snap’s business is misaligned.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Snap’s Apple Strategy — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Truth About Windows Versus the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat Spectacles and the Future of Wearables — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Old-Fashioned Snapchat — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss what kind of politicians and products cut through in the Internet age, and why they are profoundly different than what worked before.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Inspired Media — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The U.S. has Gone F&*%ing Mad — Medium
• Ben Thompson on How to Make It in the Media in 2016 — The Ezra Klein Show
• Journalism That Stands Apart — New York TimesTh

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the history of messaging apps, the rise of Snapchat, and why Instagram Stories was such a brilliant move.

NOTE: The original audio file had a problem at the 36:50 mark; if you encounter this, please delete the file from your podcast app and re-download.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat’s Ladder — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat User Growth Concerns, What Makes Snapchat Valuable? — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why different types of media have responded to the Internet with varying degrees of success.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: The Great Unbundling — Stratechery
• Chris Dixon: How Bundling Benefits Sellers and Buyers — cdixon blog
• The Netflix Backlash: Why Hollywood Fears a Content Monopoly — Hollywood Reporter
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Jobs That TV Does — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James celebrate two milestones: 10 years for the iPhone, and 100 episodes for Exponent. This is a good one: it in many respects summarizes the entire run of both Exponent and Stratechery.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: The Ten Year Anniversary of the Apple TV — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beyond Disruption — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Shameless Samsung — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: How Apple Creates Leverage, and the Future of Apple Pay — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: From Products to Platforms — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — And Inevitable Fall — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Amazon Alexa and the history of operating systems

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Links

• Is That an Echo? — Exponent Episode 070
• Ben Thompson — The Amazon Tax
• We Have Always Been at War with Amazon — Exponent Episode 081
• Ben Thompson: Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System — Stratechery
• Voice Recognition Technology — YouTube
• Ben Thompson: The Truth About Windows Versus the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Beyond Disruption — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss real estate and Opendoor, and the types of startups that will succeed in the future.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Opendoor: A Startup Worth Emulating — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Zillow Acquires Trulia — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Google Self-Driving Cars = Waymo — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Google, Uber, and the Evolution of Transportation-As-A-Service — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The State of Technology at the End of 2016 — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss cloud computing and why Google fell behind AWS, and how the company is taking a very wise strategy in catching up.

Note: Due to a recording error Ben’s track quality is poor. Our apologies.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: How Google is Challenging AWS — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Amazon Re:Invent, Google vs AWS vs IBM vs Microsoft — Stratechery Daily Update
• Steve Yegge: Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant — Google Plus
• Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Transcript: @Chamath At StrictlyVC’s Insider Series — Semil Shah Blog
• Ben Thompson: Docker and the Integrated Open-Source Company — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the fake news epidemic on Facebook, from its structural causes to its effects. Then, Facebook committed sins of omission; the tech industry ought not do the same.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Fake News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery
• How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News — BuzzFeed
• Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’ — Washington Post
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Viral Fake Election News Outperformed Real News On Facebook In Final Months Of The US Election — BuzzFeed
• I’m a Coastal Elite From the Midwest: The Real Bubble is Rural America — Roll Call

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the Trump election, filter bubbles, and the responsibility of the tech industry.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Donald Trump is the President-Elect, Tech Under Trump, The Big Picture — Stratechery Daily Update
• Episode 085: Ballots and Guillotines — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: The Brexit Possibility — Stratechery
• James Allworth: Brexit, Trump, and the Ultimatum Game — Medium
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• “Day One in Trump’s America” — Twitter Moments
• Kim-Mai Cutler: “The best way to have the stickiest and most lucrative product? Be a systematic tool for confirmation bias.” — Twitter
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and Filter Bubbles — Stratechery Daily Update
• The Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss when acquisitions make sense, why Apple shouldn’t buy Tesla, and debate whether they should or should not buy Netflix.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Apple Shouldn’t Buy Netflix — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Best — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: It’s a Tesla — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and Aggregation Theory — Stratechery Daily Update
• The Netflix Backlash: Why Hollywood Fears a Content Monopoly — Hollywood Reporters
• Ben Thompson: Netflix’s Earnings —Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Everything as a Service — Stratechery
• Steve Blank: Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple — SteveBlank.com

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the difference between the IT era and the Internet Revolution, first in the context of newspapers and then in the context of society broadly.

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Links

• Jack Shafer: What If the Newspaper Industry Made a Colossal Mistake? — Politico
• Ben Thompson: The IT Era and the Internet Revolution — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat Changes Publisher Monetization — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Sports Linchpin — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Barack Obama, Neural Nets, Self-Driving Cars, and the Future of the World — Wired
• Heidi N Moore: “Nick Denton says he’s one of few who believe internet will improve the world. “Anyone else?” Only @jeffjarvis and @jayrosen_nyu raise hands” — Twitter

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss what Consumerization of IT means in the context of Workplace by Facebook, Skype Teams, and Slack.

Note: This podcast originally had a dead spot at the 8:13 mark. It has been fixed. To update please delete the podcast and re-download.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Chat and the Consumerization of IT — Stratechery
• David Moschella, Doug Neal, Piet Opperman, John Taylor: The ‘Consumerization’ of Information Technology — CSC
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — Stratechery
• John Gruber: Blackberry vs iPhone — Daring Fireball
• Peter Bright: Going all-in: Ars interviews Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer — Ars Technica
• Ben Thompson: Airbnb and the Internet Revolution — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Workplace by Facebook — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the history of Android and why Google’s new phone signifies such a profound shift for the company.

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Links

• Farhad Manjoo: MailChimp and the Un-Silicon
  Valley Way to Make It as a Start-Up — The New York Ttimes
• Ben Thompson: The Android Detour — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Truth About Windows Versus the Mac — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Go-to-Market Gap — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Google’s Pixel-Android Strategy is Smart, Samsung Buys Viv, Google Home — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James follow-up on Facebook versus the media, and then dive into Spectacles and what makes for a compelling product.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Facebook Tweetstorm — Twitter
• Ben Thompson: How the Snap Spectacles Story Broke, Facebook Overestimated Video Metric — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Economic Power in the Age of Abundance — Stratechery
• Warren Buffett: 1991 Letter to Shareholders — Berkshire Hathaway
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat Spectacles and the Future of Wearables — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Snapchat’s Ladder — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery
• Seth Stevenson: Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles — Wall Street Journal
• Full transcript: Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley on Recode Decode — Recode
• Ben Thompson: Does Uber Have a Strategy Problem? — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Obsoletive — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple Watch = Health and Fitness — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Oracle’s prospects in the crowd and how the Internet has changed the enterprise.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Oracle’s Cloudy Future — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Is AWS a Commodity? — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Facebook’s latest run-in with the media: both are wrong but for different reasons.

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Links

• Ben Thompson: Facebook Versus the Media — Stratechery
• Espen Egil Hansen: Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply with your requirement to remove this picture. — Aftenposten
• Ben Thompson: What the Media Misses About Facebook, Facebook’s Missing Humans — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss James’ adventurous summer and the recent Apple event and what it says about the future of Apple.

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Links

• Wolverine Misses Exponent — Twitter
• James Allworth: So You’re Thinking About Doing a 10 Day Silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat? — Medium
• Naked People — Exponent
• Ben Thompson: Beyond the iPhone — Stratechery
• Farhad Manjoo: What’s Really Missing From the New iPhone: Cutting-Edge Design — New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• Tim Cook, the interview: Running Apple ‘is sort of a lonely job’ — The Washington Post
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s PR Push, Maps and Apple’s Organizational Structure — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Facebook Live and Pokémon Go. Please note that this episode was podcast five days ago, on Saturday, July 16.

Links

• Ben Thompson: A Technical Glitch — Stratechery
• The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed — Wired
• Mat Honan: Why Facebook And Mark Zuckerberg Went All In On Live Video — BuzzFeed
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Feed — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Pokémon Go Phenomonan, Nintendo’s Pivot, Additional Notes on Pokémon Go — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Activision Blizzard Buys King Digital — Stratechery Daily Update
• Aaron Levie: Nintendo’s Mobile Strategy — Twitter
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss why the sociopolitical factors underlying the Brexit vote and their relationship to technology and a system of the future.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Brexit Possibility — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — And Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Follow-up: The Big Picture — Stratechery
• James Allworth: Brexit, Trump, and the Ultimatum Game — Medium

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss how the TV industry and the companies that advertise on TV are interconnected, and how they will rise and fall together.

Links

• Ben Thompson: TV Advertising’s Surprising Strength — and Inevitable Fall — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Cord Cutting Fantasy — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Disney and ESPN Will Be OK — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Old-Fashioned Snapchat — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: How Technology is Changing the World (P&G Edition) — Stratechery
• Ken Doctor: The Macy’s Factor — Politico
• Ben Thompson: Cars and the Future — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Publishers and the Smiling Curve — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Changing — and Unchanging — Structure of TV — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The FANG Playbook — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Aggregation Theory — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn and Apple’s WWDC announcements, and figure out why they feel so differently about the two of them.

Links

• James Allworth: Who’s going to be having sleepless nights after Microsoft’s LinkedIn deal? — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Microsoft and Apple Double Down — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: How Satya Nadella Killed Windows Phone — Stratechery
• Microsoft’s Nadella Manages Legacy of Ballmer-Board Split — Bloomberg
• Ben Thompson: The Deal That Makes No Sense — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Curse of Culture — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Apple Watch: Asking Why and Saying No — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss the present and future of podcasts, and how media companies need to take a holistic approach to their businesses.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Future of Podcasts — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Why Web Pages Suck — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Publishers and the Smiling Curve — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Grantland and the (Surprising) Future of Publishing — Stratechery
• Ezra Klein Show: Ben Thompson on How to Make it in the Media in 2016 — Vox
• Marco Arment: Apple’s Actual Role in Podcasting: Be Careful What You Wish For — Marco.org
• Podcasts Surge, but Producers Fear Apple Isn’t Listening — New York Times

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James explain why Alexa is an even bigger deal than it seems, and why both Apple and Google should fear Amazon. Plus, why Microsoft’s challenges are only beginning.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Jeff Bezos at the Code Conference — Stratechery Daily Update
• Jeff Bezos Intervew at the Code Conference: Video, Podcast, Live Blog
• Now We’re Talking: Amazon Alexa Comes to Pebble Core — Pebble
• Ben Thompson: Twilio Files for IPO — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Go-to-Market Gap — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App, That’s Great News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Curse of Culture — Stratechery
• Microsoft Board Mulls Sales Force Revamp to Speed Shift to Cloud — Bloomberg
• Ben Thompson: Redmond and Reality — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Disruption of IBM — Stratechery Daily Update

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss briefly revisit last week’s discussion on Facebook, then discuss the Peter Thiel versus Gawker affair, and the implications for tech broadly. Then, how culture helps and hurts at Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Links

• Ben Thompson: The Real Problem with Facebook and the News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Peter Thiel, Comic Book Hero — Stratechery (note: this was written after the podcast)
• When the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Facebook — Wall Street Journal
• Ben Thompson: The Curse of Culture — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Go-to-Market Gap — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Everything as a Service — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

Podcast Information

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Ben and James discuss the allegations that Facebook is censoring conservative news, and renew their ongoing debate about Facebook’s power. Then, why Google’s current situation is similar to Microsoft, even though the long-term looks good.

Links

• Want to Know What Facebook Really Thinks of Journalists? Here’s What Happened When It Hired Some. — Gizmodo
• Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News — Gizmodo
• Nilay Patel: Let’s Say Obvious Things About Facebook and Conservative News — The Verge
• Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Real Problem with Facebook and the News — Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Defending Facebook Stratechery Daily Update
• Nicholas Kristof: A Confession of Liberal Intolerance — New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebook — Stratechery
• James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
• Ben Thompson: Google’s Go-to-Market Gap — Stratechery
• Steve Yegge: Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant — Google Plus
• Ben Thompson: Everything as a Service — Stratechery

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

Podcast Information

• Feed
• iTunes
• SoundCloud
• Twitter
• Feedback
• Sponsorship Inquiry

Ben and James discuss how the world will change, how change happens in companies and society, and debate whether or not we have crossed the rubicon to a new world.

Links

• Ben Thompson: Everything as a Service —  Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
• Farhad Manjoo: The Uber Model, It Turns Out, Doesn’t Translate — The New York Times
• Ben Thompson: Intel Restructures — Stratechery Daily Update
• Ben Thompson: Microsoft’s Mobile Muddle — Stratechery
• Max Wessel: Path Dependency, Infrastructure, and Entrepreneurship — LongLogic
• Too Much of a Good Thing — Economist
• Ben Thompson: Facebook and New Market Disruption — Stratechery Daily Update