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
Sep 25, 2023 • 12min
"Capital Light" is a Trait of the Cycle as well as the Industry
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) - "Capital Light" is a Trait of the Cycle as well as the Industry
(06:21) - Individual Bets and Risk Premia
(07:50) - Tinder's Price Discrimination
(08:38) - Smartphone Competition
(09:26) - The Partner-With-AI Arms Race
(10:29) - Mediocre Success
Sep 18, 2023 • 19min
Making A Match
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) - Making A Match
(11:49) - Instacart: Ahead of the IPO
(13:47) - Movie Clips and the Piracy Equilibrium
(15:00) - EVs and Public Choice Theory
(16:39) - Banks Retrench
(17:32) - China's Lost Decade?
Sep 11, 2023 • 15min
Price-First or Thesis-First Research?
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) - Price-First or Thesis-First Research?
(08:35) - Aging Up
(09:31) - Housing
(10:33) - Virality
(12:05) - LLM Arms Races
(13:26) - The Uber of X
Sep 4, 2023 • 15min
The Supply Chains of Bits and Atoms
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 Supply Chains of Bits and Atoms
(08:21) - 7nm
(09:20) - New Yahoo
(10:39) - Red Teams and AI Unit Economics
(11:52) - Horizontal Expansion
(12:57) - Private Markets
Aug 28, 2023 • 19min
Instacart is the Best and Worst Grocery Business Imaginable
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) - Instacart is the Best and Worst Grocery Business Imaginable
(14:47) - New Cities
(15:21) - Scraping
(16:19) - Klaviyo
(17:03) - Crowdfunding
(17:36) - Maturity Matching
Aug 21, 2023 • 16min
Should We Expect Valuations to Mean-Revert Over Time?
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) - Should We Expect Valuations to Mean-Revert Over Time?
(11:48) - Sushi
(12:40) - Modeling Demand
(13:35) - China's Debt
(14:24) - Coevolution and Pulling Up the Ladder
(15:21) - The Venn Diagram Career
Aug 14, 2023 • 17min
Inside the Decline of Stack Exchange
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) - Inside the Decline of Stack Exchange
(11:20) - The Other X
(13:14) - Refinancing China
(14:06) - The Activist Short Death Spiral
(15:10) - Rebundling
(16:05) - Fitness Bands
Aug 7, 2023 • 15min
Information as a Universal Complement and Universal Substitute
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 as a Universal Complement and Universal Substitute
(09:14) - Making a Market
(10:25) - Financial Innovation
(11:02) - IRL
(12:10) - Open-Ended Liabilities
(13:19) - Meme Stock Relapse
Jul 31, 2023 • 11min
You Hate The Products You're An Early Adopter Of Because of Invisible Base Rates and Anthropic Bias
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) - You Hate The Products You're An Early Adopter Of Because of Invisible Base Rates and Anthropic Bias
(06:54) - The Big Tech Cycle
(08:00) - Chinese Consumer Internet Competition With American Characteristics
(08:32) - Reallocating
(09:38) - Durables
(10:07) - Crypto Use Cases
Jul 24, 2023 • 12min
Don't Get Addicted to Fantasy Economics
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) - Don't Get Addicted to Fantasy Economics
(07:04) - Exporting Clean Energy
(07:48) - Reverse Turing Tests
(08:56) - Syndicate Economics
(09:51) - Integration
(10:38) - Data
