The Diff
Byrne Hobart
The Diff is a newsletter exploring the technologies, companies, and trends that are making the future high-variance. Posts range from in-depth company profiles, applied financial theory, strategy breakdowns and macroeconomics.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 9, 2025 • 14min
Search Remains the Best Business in History
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Search Remains the Best Business in History
(09:38) - Equity Market Vigilantes
(10:27) - Scale
(11:15) - Volatility
(12:02) - Tariff Impact
(13:03) - Splits and Synergies
Jun 2, 2025 • 12min
Democratizing Complicated Financial Products is Inevitable, but Fraught
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Democratizing Complicated Financial Products is Inevitable, but Fraught
(08:27) - Startup Fraud
(09:09) - Automation
(09:52) - Motivations
(10:31) - Ads
(11:15) - Utilization
May 27, 2025 • 5min
Adversarial Attacks in Statistical Arbitrage
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - And, elsewhere:
(00:03) - Banking
(00:44) - Financial Engineering
(01:20) - Hiring and Game Theory
(02:38) - Currency Blocs
(03:13) - AI SEO
May 19, 2025 • 13min
Competing Elite-Selection Mechanisms
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - TK Competing Elite-Selection Mechanisms
(06:39) - Left-Tail Outcomes
(08:18) - Downgrades and Giffen Goods
(10:21) - Bearer Instruments
(11:27) - Currency
(12:07) - Shipping
May 12, 2025 • 13min
Arbs Close, Infrastructure Remains
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Arbs Close, Infrastructure Remains
(06:41) - Abundance and Realignment
(07:17) - AI Undeath
(08:11) - Basic Capital
(09:42) - Tariffs
(11:28) - Insurable Risks
Apr 28, 2025 • 13min
When Step One is to Light Money on Fire and Measure How Fast it Burns
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - When Step One is to Light Money on Fire and Measure How Fast it Burns
(06:21) - Groupchats and Norms
(09:56) - Venture
(10:23) - Made in America
(11:08) - Real Estate Elasticity
(11:47) - Lagging Investments
Apr 21, 2025 • 14min
Thinking-Things-Through Privilege
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Thinking-Things-Through Privilege
(08:11) - Trade Negotiations
(10:05) - M&A
(11:09) - AI and IP
(11:58) - Consolidation
(12:42) - Sourcing
Apr 14, 2025 • 13min
Information Economies and Institution Economies
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Information Economies and Institution Economies
(07:58) - Distribution
(09:19) - Non-Tariff Barriers
(10:24) - Low-Background Text
(11:08) - Application Layer
(12:05) - Socks
Apr 7, 2025 • 13min
Finance as a Scale-Invariant Global Computer
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - Finance as a Scale-Invariant Global Computer
(06:29) - The Market
(08:45) - Supply and Demand
(09:38) - The March Continues
(10:43) - ETFs
(11:42) - Intellectual Property
Mar 31, 2025 • 11min
"Do Firms Need Juniors?" Might be the Wrong Question
This is an audio version of the free newsletter. Read the newsletter at thediff.co, and subscribe for an additional 3 posts (and podcasts!) per week.
(00:00) - "Do Firms Need Juniors?" Might be the Wrong Question
(06:02) - Solve for X + X
(07:45) - Refactoring
(08:21) - AI and Distribution
(09:11) - How Models Think
(10:14) - The AI Business Model
