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

Dec 2, 2016 • 1h 13min
Episode 097 — Google Versus AWS
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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Nov 18, 2016 • 1h 16min
Episode 096 — Sins of Commission and Omission
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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Nov 11, 2016 • 1h 10min
Episode 095 — The Backlash Has Arrived
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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Nov 4, 2016 • 1h 18min
Episode 094 — Should Apple Buy Netflix?
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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Oct 21, 2016 • 57min
Episode 093 — The Disruption of Everything
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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Oct 14, 2016 • 1h 12min
Episode 092 — Defining Consumerization of IT
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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Oct 7, 2016 • 1h 7min
Episode 091 — Google’s New Business Model
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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Sep 30, 2016 • 1h 2min
Episode 090 — Fashionable to Be Cynical
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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Sep 23, 2016 • 1h 3min
Episode 089 — Move On from the 80s
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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Sep 16, 2016 • 1h
Episode 088 — The Dark Side of the Facebook
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
Podcast Information
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