Byrne Hobart

The Diff

Business EN ↓ 307 episodes

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.

Author

Byrne Hobart

Category

Business

Latest episode

Jul 6, 2026

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Episodes

Taking Strategy Seriously 23.07.2021

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) - Taking Strategy Seriously (09:06) - Streaming as Instant Gratification (10:39) - Batteries (11:42) - Shrinking Analyst Teams (12:33) - Diffident Voters (13:28) - Oil, Recapitalized

Newsletters Can Move Markets 16.07.2021

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) - Newsletters Can Move Markets (10:34) - A Word From Our Sponsors (11:12) - "Real Men Have Fabs" (12:03) - Rollups (12:54) - Platform Control (13:46) - Outperformance (15:04) - Chips and China (16:27) - Double Zero

Illumina: "View Source" for Life 09.07.2021

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) - Illumina: "View Source" for Life (10:17) - A Word From Our Sponsors (10:55) - The Balance Sheet-Constrained Bank (11:59) - The Global Kuznets Curve in Action (12:35) - Net Zero (13:30) - Real-Time (14:35) - Aviations Big Two (Plus One)

The Robinhood Challenge 06.07.2021

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 Robinhood Challenge (12:38) - Another Gulf Carrier? (13:37) - Air Buyout (14:06) - The AI Layer (14:50) - Didi and Information Asymmetry (15:53) - Strategic SPACs

Chumboxes or Trust-Busters? Taboola and Outbrain 02.07.2021

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) - Chumboxes or Trust-Busters? Taboola and Outbrain (12:07) - Sticky Wages (12:46) - Robinhood! (13:53) - Search Engines (15:09) - 1-to-M-of-N Secret Sharing (16:02) - Housing

We are All Buffettologists Now 25.06.2021

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) - We are All Buffettologists Now

Shifting the Global Kuznets Curve: Why Climate Matters More 18.06.2021

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) - Shifting the Global Kuznets Curve: Why Climate Matters More (09:32) - Online-to-Offline (10:20) - Consolidation (11:10) - Unintended Consequences (12:02) - Supply Chains as Banking Systems (13:22) - International Software Nationalism

A Normal Country? 11.06.2021

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) - A Normal Country? (27:18) - Negative-Marginal-Cost Billboards (28:17) - Spillovers (28:44) - Piecemeal Privatization (29:25) - Financial Protectionism

Prediction Markets and Worse is Better 04.06.2021

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) - Prediction Markets and Worse is Better (09:18) - A Word From Our Sponsors (09:56) - De-Dollarization on Paper (10:56) - The Amazon Bundle (12:05) - The Extension Market (13:10) - Zombie Airlines (14:03) - Supersonic (15:25) - Fractal Fraud

Paradox Interactive, The Little Big Media Conglomerate 28.05.2021

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) - Paradox Interactive, The Little Big Media Conglomerate (09:14) - Millennials: Not Poor, But Levered (10:32) - Vaccine Markets (12:09) - Only Chamath can go to the SEC Headquarters (13:33) - Reigning Over Big Tech in China (15:08) - Investme...

The Economics of Pseudonymity 21.05.2021

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 Economics of Pseudonymity (13:31) - Fungible Energy Jobs (14:48) - Robinhood's Other IPO News (16:00) - Financial Engineering in Home Improvement (16:31) - The Case for Steeply Progressive Ad Taxes (18:15) - Like OPEC In a Good Way

Building Parallel Financial Systems 14.05.2021

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) - Building Parallel Financial Systems (11:46) - A Word From Our Sponsors (12:24) - Tethers and Dollars (15:08) - The Hotel Shortage (16:01) - The Credit Reopening (17:01) - Ransomware Acceleration (18:20) - Churn, Margins, and Habits

Crypto as an Overheated Emerging Market 11.05.2021

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) - Crypto as an Overheated Emerging Market (11:03) - Rolling Blackouts, Floating Power Plants (11:48) - Scalable Review Fraud (12:42) - The Risk of Writing Options (13:55) - Socially Responsible Hackers

Stripe and Solid-State Economics 07.05.2021

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) - Stripe and Solid-State Economics (35:50) - Hulu's Regulatory Arbitrage (36:48) - Post-Archegos (38:07) - Patents (40:20) - Emissions: a Global Problem

The 2x2 Inflation Debate 30.04.2021

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 2x2 Inflation Debate (08:20) - Valuementum (09:34) - Quants and Lumber (10:29) - Cheap Hacks (12:16) - Tax Adjustment

Surviving a Combinatorial Explosion 23.04.2021

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) - Surviving a Combinatorial Explosion (07:29) - Sanctions, Cautiously (08:16) - Adtech Always Adds Layers (09:19) - Unfundable Mines (09:55) - Less Marginal Business

Cloudflare's Intelligent Design 16.04.2021

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) - Cloudflare's Intelligent Design (10:30) - A Word From Our Sponsors (11:11) - Travel Recovery (12:08) - Targeted Restrictions (13:05) - Another Retail Ad Product (13:40) - Semi-Public

Decoupling, Digital Currency, and the Consumer of Last Resort 09.04.2021

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) - Decoupling, Digital Currency, and the Consumer of Last Resort (08:30) - A SPAC Modest Proposal (09:49) - Scraping for Profit (10:39) - Post-Cookie (12:06) - Best Buy Bundle (12:51) - Debt is Here (14:27) - The Short-Selling Cycle

Partial Deregulation as an Antipattern 02.04.2021

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) - Partial Deregulation as an Antipattern (08:57) - China's Inflation Inflection (09:51) - The Next Amazon IPO (10:29) - The First Shopify Pivot (11:25) - The Other Two Supply Chains (12:34) - Non-Monolithic China

Electrocloud! 26.03.2021

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) - Electrocloud! (20:14) - IPO Demand Curves (20:54) - Blackout Insurance (21:56) - Theaters and the Streaming Option (22:32) - Easy Comps (23:28) - Permanent Shifts

Where Apple Can Own I/O 22.03.2021

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) - Where Apple Can Own I/O (00:13) - The Great Inflation (00:54) - Two-Way API Businesses (01:46) - Zoom and Cities: The Five-Century-Old Case Study (02:48) - From ETrade to eToro (03:37) - Hardware-as-a-Service

The Value of Time Rounds to Either Zero or Infinity 19.03.2021

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 Value of Time Rounds to Either Zero or Infinity (07:36) - A Word From Our Sponsors (08:15) - Limits to Hardware-as-a-Service (09:29) - Shareholder Activism in Japan (10:34) - Flipping (pt 1) (12:20) - Flipping (pt 2) (13:03) - Better Di...

What Salesforce is Selling (and Buying) 12.03.2021

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 Salesforce is Selling (and Buying) (11:49) - A Word From Our Sponsors (12:21) - Multilateral Vaccine Diplomacy (13:18) - State Capacity Straussianism (14:02) - Bicameral Diplomacy (15:25) - Chip Insourcing, Slowly (16:44) - Password Pr...

Understanding Coinbase 11.03.2021

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 Coinbase (12:15) - Security (13:25) - Different Abstractions (15:15) - Facebook Futurism (16:13) - SPAC Apathy

IBM: The Center of Gravity 05.03.2021

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) - IBM: The Center of Gravity (15:47) - A Word From Our Sponsors (16:21) - Price Signals (17:28) - Texas Energy's Banking Crisis (18:43) - Greensill's Arbitrage(s) (20:05) - Which Long Run? (21:29) - The Supply-Side/Demand-Side Seesaw

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