Byrne Hobart

The Diff

Business EN ↓ 323 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

Oct 26, 2026

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Episodes

Making A Match 18.09.2023

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?

Price-First or Thesis-First Research? 11.09.2023

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

The Supply Chains of Bits and Atoms 04.09.2023

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

Instacart is the Best and Worst Grocery Business Imaginable 28.08.2023

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

Should We Expect Valuations to Mean-Revert Over Time? 21.08.2023

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

Inside the Decline of Stack Exchange 14.08.2023

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

Information as a Universal Complement and Universal Substitute 07.08.2023

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

You Hate The Products You're An Early Adopter Of Because of Invisible Base Rates and Anthropic Bias 31.07.2023

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) -...

Don't Get Addicted to Fantasy Economics 24.07.2023

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

It's Hard to Build a Durable Business Selling Durable Goods 17.07.2023

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) - It's Hard to Build a Durable Business Selling Durable Goods (13:02) - Wrappers and Layoffs (13:53) - The Movies (15:38) - Evaporating Sanctions (16:09) - Bonds (16:52) - Errors in Translation

Was it Worth it for Facebook to Become Meta? 10.07.2023

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) - Was it Worth it for Facebook to Become Meta? (09:38) - Carbon Accounting (10:48) - Social Mobility (11:23) - To Replicate or To Replicate (13:06) - Energy Transitions (14:04) - Financing

AI Turns UGC into a PVP Zone 03.07.2023

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) - AI Turns UGC into a PVP Zone (07:04) - Goldman (08:17) - ETFs (09:02) - Dispersion (10:09) - Softbank (11:20) - Contrarianism

The Economics of Engineering Blogs 26.06.2023

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 Engineering Blogs (08:27) - Art Exchange (09:51) - Fraud (10:56) - Airlines (11:44) - The Long Tail (12:29) - Chinese IPOs

Reddit and Platform Politics 20.06.2023

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) - Reddit and Platform Politics (09:12) - The Boomer Market (10:18) - Network Effects (11:20) - Direct to Retail (12:08) - Strategic Investing (13:05) - ByteDance and AI

Where Does Stripe Go From Here? 15.06.2023

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 Does Stripe Go From Here? (10:43) - Deal Flow (11:32) - Proprietary Data (12:31) - Beyoncéflation (13:09) - Pricing and Local Maxima (14:28) - Funds and Spoils

Unavoidable Drawdowns 12.06.2023

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) - Unavoidable Drawdowns (06:45) - Dumb Money (08:08) - Adversarial Environments (09:04) - Coasian Bargains in Immigration (10:05) - Asset Allocation (11:23) - Lock-In

In Defense of Made-Up Metrics 05.06.2023

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) - In Defense of Made-Up Metrics (07:32) - Scaling the Non-Scalable (09:49) - VR and Platform Ownership (11:15) - What is a Bank? (12:19) - The Non-Recession Recession, in One Graph (13:23) - Going Direct

Data, Prices, and Central Planning 30.05.2023

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) - Data, Prices, and Central Planning (09:02) - Japan Remains Cheap (10:08) - Tipping and Price Discrimination (11:10) - Bad News is Good News (12:26) - Black Markets (13:08) - Jobs

Cava: One Brand, Many Channels 22.05.2023

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) - Cava: One Brand, Many Channels (07:41) - AI and Incumbents (08:51) - Buying Reputation (09:40) - Restaurant Pricing (10:35) - Debt, Prices, and the Pull-Forward Effect (11:46) - Assets and Distribution

Why Do Equities Build So Much Wealth? 15.05.2023

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) - Why Do Equities Build So Much Wealth? (07:36) - Efficient Markets (08:15) - Logistics (09:28) - Markups (10:02) - The New Geography (10:34) - Marking to Market

The Relationship-Transactional-Relationship Business Cycle 08.05.2023

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 Relationship-Transactional-Relationship Business Cycle (07:46) - Metrics at Twitter (09:04) - Workarounds (09:49) - Generative Ads (10:14) - Elsewhere in AI (10:55) - Banking

SVB in Retrospect 01.05.2023

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) - SVB in Retrospect (09:01) - And in Other Banking News (10:05) - States See Like Big Tech (11:17) - Aggressive Competition (12:12) - Agglomeration and Sports (13:02) - The Narrow Rally

Why The Answer Is So Often Ads 24.04.2023

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) - Why The Answer Is So Often Ads (07:33) - Strategic Shutdowns (08:11) - Verification, Ads, and Membership (08:49) - The China Cap Table (09:28) - Very Long-Term Investing (10:46) - Branding a Bank

Working with a Copilot 17.04.2023

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) - Working with a Copilot (11:59) - Catching Up (14:09) - Private Capital (15:35) - AI Regulation (17:17) - AI Stocks (19:04) - Cars and Interfaces

Dueling Over Platforms 10.04.2023

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) - Dueling Over Platforms (09:46) - De-Googling (10:17) - Reshoring (11:53) - Attribution (12:49) - Volatility (13:18) - The State of AI Workers

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