Ben and James discuss the recent App Store controversy and how a person – or company’s – greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. Plus a special 2nd recording about the Harvard business school professor and the Chinese restaurant.

Links

• Cabel Sasser: Transmit iOS 1.1.1 [Updated] – Panic blog
• Greg Gardner: Launcher Followup and Thoughts on the App Store Review System – Cromulent Labs
• Ben Thompson: App Store Anguish, Old Apple’s Last Stand, Time for a Change? – Stratechery (members-only)
• Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: The Diminished iPad – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Pleco: Building a Business, Not an App – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Uber and Portland, Uber and India – Stratechery (members-only)
• Sriram Krishnan: In defense of Uber in India – Medium
• Ben Thompson: Best – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: What Steve Jobs Wouldn’t Have Done – Stratechery
• Ben Edelman: Google’s Advertising Labeling in 2014 – BenEdelman.org
• Ben Edelman: Facebook Leaks Usernames, User IDs, and Personal Details to Advertisers – BenEdelman.org
• Who is Ben Edelman, Sheriff of the (Chinese Food) Internet? – Boston.com
• Making Delicious Cocktails with America’s Best Bartender – GQ

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @monkbent, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James follow up on last week’s Uber discussion, talk about the problem with regulation, and worry about stagnation and the different cultures of Europe, America, and Asia.

Links

• Nicole Campbell: What Was Said at the Uber Dinner – Huffington Post
• Lane Wood: Here Ego Again – Medium
• Chase Madar: Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop – Nation
• Peter Sterne: Jack Schafer on Losing his Job and the State of Things – Capital New York
• Ben Thompson: Why Uber Fights – Stratechery
• Zenefits Faces Shutdown In Utah For Giving Its Cloud-Based HR Software Away For Free – Techcrunch
• So You Think You Can Be a Hair Braider – New York Times
• Note: A federal judge eventually gave the right for the Utah hair-braider to work. In addition, the Utah governor has pledged to look into the law affecting Zenefits, but no concrete changes have been implemented.
• James Allworth: How Corruption is Strangling U.S. Innovation – Harvard Business Review
• StartupLJackson: “Dammit Utah, it’s shit like this that drives people into the arms of Ayn Rand.” – Twitter
• Blake Ross: Uber.gov – Medium
• Jenna Wortham: Ubering While Black – Medium

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @monkbent, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James briefly discuss Ben’s belief in the Internet opportunity for content creators, and then dive in to the recent Uber controversy.

Links

• Publishers and the Smiling Curve: Ben Thompson – Stratechery
• Differentiation and Value Capture in the Internet Age: Ben Thompson – Stratechery
• The Internet Rainforest – Exponent
• Ang Lee and the Uncertainty of Success – Jeff Lin
• The Uber Problem – Stratechery Daily Update (members only)
• Uber and the Tyson Zone – Stratechery Daily Update (members only)
• Look How Uber’s Investors Have Also Funded Some Of Its Biggest Critics – Forbes

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @monkbent, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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Ben and James discuss Twitter and its strategic options, as well as YouTube’s new music service, Taylor Swift and Spotify, plus the special return of the garbage truck song.

Links

• Twitter Sharpens Its Strategy to Win Over Investors – Wall Street Journal
• Ben Thompson: There are Two Twitters; Only One is Worth Investing In – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Twitter’s Marketing Problem – Stratechery
• Daniel Ek: $2 Billion and Counting – Spotify
• Taylor Swift: For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story – Wall Street Journal
• Ben Thompson: What Taylor Swift Gets Right – Stratechery (members-only)

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @monkbent, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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The idea for Exponent was hatched when Ben and James were arguing about Ben’s article What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong a year ago. In this episode, we finally reach a resolution to the question about how Apple escapes disruption. Plus, whether or not Xiaomi is a threat to Apple, personal development philosophies, and more (sorry, we went a bit long…)

Links

• Ben Thompson: How Apple Creates Leverage, and the Future of Apple Pay – Stratechery
• John Siracusa: OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review (Conclusion) – ArsTechnica
• Ben Thompson: What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong – Stratechery
• Ben Thompson: Growing Apple at WWDC – Stratechery
• James Allworth: The 787’s Problems Run Deeper Than Outsourcing – Harvard Business Review

Hosts

• Ben Thompson, @monkbent, Stratechery
• James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review

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