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
Nov 24, 2020 • 12min
Wish: E-Commerce, Fast and Slow
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) - Wish: E-Commerce, Fast and Slow
(08:30) - Online-to-Offline
(09:39) - Less Than $10 Per Month
(10:22) - Movie Lots
(10:48) - Taxes and Incentives
(11:33) - Unfairness
Nov 23, 2020 • 15min
Roblox: Tweenage Mutant MMT-ers
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) - Roblox: Tweenage Mutant MMT-ers
(08:46) - The Gini Coefficient Bull Case for SaaS
(09:58) - Big Banks as Common Carriers
(11:10) - Yuan Bonds
(12:24) - In-House Chips
(13:21) - Understanding Consulting
Nov 20, 2020 • 20min
What’s Gold For?
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) - What’s Gold For?
(15:11) - A Word From Our Sponsors
(16:00) - Bitcoin, Flows, Autochthony
(17:01) - Digital Media, Distribution, Autochthony
(17:43) - Leaving “Little Taipei”
(18:44) - Scrap
Nov 17, 2020 • 17min
Understanding Airbnb
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) - Understanding Airbnb
(12:42) - Measuring Eyeballs
(13:29) - Property Rights
(15:05) - Reputational Bug Bounties
(16:08) - Running Out the Clock on Tariffs
Nov 13, 2020 • 18min
How Bubbles and Megaprojects Parallelize Innovation
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) - How Bubbles and Megaprojects Parallelize Innovation
(10:52) - Vaccine Economics and Emerging Markets' Tough Choices
(11:58) - Big Tech and the Missing Middle in Emerging Asia
(14:17) - The Personal, The Political, and Ant
(15:08) - Form, Function, and Ads
(16:40) - Understanding Value's Underperformance
Nov 6, 2020 • 20min
Big Tech Sees Like a State
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) - Big Tech Sees Like a State
(14:34) - Pirate's Treasure, Redux
(15:23) - Takedowns
(16:10) - Antitrust and Laggy Beliefs
(16:51) - Money, The High-Order Bit
(17:44) - Perceptual Arbitrage in Crowdfunding
(18:50) - Covid and the Talent Shift
Nov 2, 2020 • 11min
Media Refragmentation and Funnel Capture
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) - Media Refragmentation and Funnel Capture
(05:57) - Disaggregation and Reaggregation in Fundraising
(06:45) - Separation of Powers
(07:29) - The Mortgage IPO Boom
(08:10) - Multichannel Retail
(09:13) - Recursive R(t), Redux
(09:52) - Case Studies in Central Bank Fiscal Policy
Oct 30, 2020 • 15min
Hardware-as-a-Service
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) - Hardware-as-a-Service
(10:08) - A Word From Our Sponsors
(10:45) - The Muni Crisis
(12:46) - Worker Mobility
(14:03) - Supply Shocks
Oct 23, 2020 • 19min
Engineering a Conglomerate
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) - Engineering a Conglomerate
(09:18) - A Word From Our Sponsors
(09:50) - Pretty Bad Privacy
(11:31) - Exercising the Whistleblower Option
(12:13) - Who Owns Streamed Games?
(13:08) - Rebooting Transit
(13:45) - Palantir
(14:59) - Tech Sees Like a State
(15:49) - Rationalists and Thymos
Oct 21, 2020 • 12min
The WeWork Arc
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) - The WeWork Arc
(07:26) - Amazon's Third-Party Data
(08:14) - The Lucas Critique in Finance
(09:20) - Matching the Huawei Strategy
(10:02) - Froth
(10:52) - Demand and Logistics
