Exponent is a podcast about tech and society hosted by Ben Thompson and James Allworth

Ben Thompson is the author and founder of Stratechery, a blog about the business and strategy of technology. You can follow him on Twitter @benthompson.

James Allworth is the co-author with Clay Christensen of How Will You Measure Your Life and a writer for the Harvard Business Review. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesallworth.

Episode 038 – Feeds and Speeds for Life

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss why California is unique, diversity and inequality, James’ work on “How Will You Measure Your Life”, making decisions, and whether or not business school was worth it for us.

Links

  • Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, Karen Dillon: How Will You Measure Your Life – Website, Amazon

Hosts

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Episode 037 – Apple Watch, Take Two

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss the recent Apple Event, including the MacBook and Apple Watch

Links

  • Ben Thompson: Mobile First – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: “Geeks are not just unqualified to explain the new MacBook, they’re anti-qualified” – Twitter
  • Ben Thompson: How Apple Will Make the Wearable Market – Stratechery
  • Matthew Panzarino: The Apple Watch is Time, Saved – TechCrunch
  • “Really” Windows Phone commercial – YouTube
  • David Platt: Apple iPhone Debut to Flop, Product to Crash in Flames – Suckbusters

Hosts

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Episode 036 – Tradeoffs

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss tradeoffs in the context of net neutrality, AT&T’s new gigabit service, and Lenovo’s Superfish debacle

Note: when talking about the history of cable, Ben kept saying “companies” instead of “communities.” Sorry for the confusion!

Links

  • Ben Thompson: Netflix and Net Neutrality – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Net Neutrality! (analyzing the current proposal) – Stratechery (members-only)
  • This Week in Tech: Superfishy – Twit.TV
  • Ben Thompson: Lenovo’s Superfish Debacle, AT&T Prices Privacy – Stratechery (members-only)
  • Jon Matonis: Silent Circle And Vertu Partner On $10,000 Phone – Forbes

Hosts

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Episode 035 – Fascinating

We apologize for the late delivery of this podcast!

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss why Apple is so fascinating, why the Mac lost to Windows, debate whether or not Google should have open-sourced Android, and discussed the implications of Apple’s new market – your entire life

Also, please note that there will no episode later this week due to Chinese New Year.

Links

  • John Gruber: Dazzling Results – Daring Fireball
  • Ben Thompson: Apple’s New Market – Stratechery
  • Rita McGrath: The End of Competitive Advantage – Kindle
  • Ben Thompson: The Uncanny Valley of a Functional Organization – Stratechery

Hosts

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Episode 034 – The Story of Stratechery

This is the story of Stratechery, presented with much sheepishness on Ben’s part. How Ben thought about the market, his business model, and more. We apologize that this is a little long and perhaps a bit choppy. It’s hard to talk about us!

Links

  • Andrew Sullivan: A Note to my Readers – The Dish
  • Ezra Klein: What Andrew Sullivan’s Exit Says About the Future of Blogging – Vox
  • Ben Thompson: Blogging’s Bright Future – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Dear Zoë Keating: Tell YouTube to Take a Hike – Stratechery
  • Taylor Swift: For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music is a Love Story – Wall Street Journal

Hosts

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Episode 033 – Apple Fans and the Future

We discuss Apple’s recent results, why analysts get Apple wrong, the fraught nature of fans, epistemic closure, and whether the iPhone can continue to grow.

Links

  • Ben Thompson: Bad Assumptions – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Apple the Black Swan – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Best – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Smartphone Truths and Samsung’s Inevitable Decline – Stratechery
  • James Allworth: Who Cares if Samsung Copied Apple? – Harvard Business Review (note: due to a website redesign the comments have been lost)
  • Marco Arment: Apple Has Lost the Functional High Ground – Marco.org
  • Marco Arment: What It’s Like to be too Popular for a Day – Marco.org
  • Ben Thompson: iCloud and Apple’s Founding Myth – Stratechery
  • Epistemic Closure – Wikipedia
  • ‘Epistemic Closure’? Those Are Fighting Words – New York Times
  • Ben Thompson: Two Bears – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: The End of Trickle-Down Technology – Stratechery
  • Loyalty Gives Apple the Edge Over Android – AllThingsD

Hosts

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Episode 032 – Follow-up and Frustration (Updated)

Note: I originally uploaded the wrong file. The correct file is 1:07 long, not 1:17. I am reposting this as many podcast clients download the file immediately.

We briefly follow-up on last week’s copyright discussion, discuss Ben’s article on what the technology adoption curve gets wrong about Apple and Xiaomi, and then react to Microsoft’s Windows 10 (and Project HoloLens) presentation

Links

  • Stratechery Forum Discussion about Episode 30: Flabbergasted – Stratechery Forums (members-only)
  • Ben Thompson: The End of Trickle-Down Technology – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Part 1 of an Interview with Xiaomi VP of International Hugo Barra on India and Xiaomi’s Strategy and Target Customer – Stratechery (members-only)
  • Ben Thompson: Microsoft’s Windows 10 Event (and Project HoloLens) – Stratechery (members-only)
  • Ben Thompson: It’s Time to Split Up Microsoft – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Face in not the Future – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Christmas Gifts for Microsoft, Intel, Amazon – Stratechery

Hosts

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Episode 030 – Xiaomi

Ben and James discuss Xiaomi’s ambition to own the home, why we’re frustrated with patents, why the West is unfair to the developing world, and what makes China unique.

Links

  • Jordan Lewis: Exponent Bingo – Twitter
  • Ben Thompson: Xiaomi’s Ambition – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Handicapping the Internet of Things – Stratechery
  • When Charles Dickens fell out with America – BBC
  • To Live (The film about the Cultural Revolution) – Wikipedia

Hosts

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Episode 029 – Drones

Ben and James discuss the problems with drones, how they could be used for terrorism, and how you balance upside and downside.

Links

  • Felix Salmon: Whither Nanopublishing? – Medium
  • James Allworth: Thinking Twice About Drones – Stratechery (Members-only)
  • FBI: Man plotted to fly drone-like toy planes with bombs into school – CBS News
  • Warthox with Warpquad the fastest Quadrocopter in the Universe – YouTube
  • Mark Manson: Five Lessons from Five Years of Traveling the World – MarkManson.net

Hosts

Podcast Information

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS