The Diff

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 does Resource Extraction Produce Such Concentrated Wealth? (08:30) - RLHF (10:17) - When Will AI Show Up in Labor Market Data? (11:16) - Aligning Incentives (12:00) - Local Volatility (12:41) - FDE Shortage

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) - Dead Airlines (04:46) - Synergy (06:02) - Indexes (06:58) - Warehousing (07:53) - Capacity (08:43) - Defense

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) - Are the AI Labs Ready for the AI Backlash? (06:27) - Barter (08:06) - State Hypercapitalism (09:05) - AI Pricing (10:05) - Reflexivity (10:48) - Complements

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) - Ad-Based Platforms Have Mostly Solved Optimal Taxation (08:06) - The Infrastructure Put Option (09:14) - Monetization (10:03) - Headless SaaS (11:36) - Gazumped! (12:49) - Bits and Barrels

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) - Ring, Cloudflare, and the Supply Chain of State Capacity (08:32) - Work Trials (09:43) - The Mezzanine Tranche (10:29) - Politics by Other Means (12:51) - Lawyers (13:51) - Token Shortages

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) - Uncanny AI (05:39) - Organic Content (06:22) - Inconsistent Candor (07:28) - Liquidity (08:22) - Return to Office (09:06) - Long-Lead Time Hacking

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) - Handy Robots (08:25) - It's Personal (10:03) - Rationing (10:37) - Penny Stocks (11:47) - The Text Glut (13:34) - Sora

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) - Apple, Occasionally a Commodities Trading House (06:08) - How Inflation Spreads (07:50) - Reaching Your Target Audience (10:00) - Labor Substitution (11:05) - Agents (12:04) - Financing

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) - Are We Already Building a Piecemeal AI Data Royalty Model? (05:30) - Refounding (06:20) - User Acquisition Costs (07:09) - Data Sharing (08:05) - Fees

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) - America Has a Comparative Advantage in Handling Global Disorder (08:14) - A Word From Our Sponsors (08:17) - Where We Are in the Cycle (09:47) - Insurer of Last Resort (10:27) - Marketplaces and Routers (11:10) - Getting a Bid (12:14) - Talent

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 Year of Convergence (09:03) - Ads (10:10) - Maximalism (10:50) - Comparative Advantage (11:35) - Trader-in-Chief (12:20) - GenAI

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) - Routers, Apps, AGI (23:09) - Peripheral Bets (23:59) - Fragmentation and Industry Maturity (24:35) - Deepfakes as Pull Quotes (25:12) - Benchmarks (26:15) - Platforms

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 Generative Video Accelerationism (14:12) - Notifications (15:14) - IP (16:09) - Hyperliquidated (17:45) - DOGE (19:11) - Painting the Tape

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) - Technological Progress is a Stack of S-Curves; Diffusion is a Stack of J-Curves (10:01) - AI Efficiency (10:54) - Dollar Diplomacy (11:48) - Sora (12:44) - Capital Structure (14:12) - Reshoring Paradoxes

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) - Media Gluts Happen at the Level of Distribution, not Content (09:16) - Headline Risk (10:02) - The Crypto Treasury Trade (11:10) - The Paradox of Decentralization (12:08) - TikTok (13:04) - Signal and Noise

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 Sense of History (09:30) - Coasian Labor Markets (12:06) - Industrial Policy (13:05) - Trading (13:41) - TikTok (14:52) - Crypto Treasury M&A

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) - On Faking It 'Til You Make It (08:01) - GPU Clouds (08:55) - Going Global (09:51) - Prediction Markets (10:41) - Revenge Trading (11:41) - Authenticity

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 Autistic Half-Century (11:58) - Burn Rates (13:06) - Round-Tripping (13:41) - AI and IP (14:36) - IPOs and Network Effects (15:46) - Spinoffs

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) - Rumor Markets (08:14) - Legitimacy (10:25) - Tariffs (11:26) - AI and Complements (12:21) - Tariffs and Elasticity (13:15) - Economic Nationalism

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) - Figure and the Crypto Mullet Strategy (09:17) - Billions (10:09) - Intel (11:09) - Negotiating the AI Transition (11:47) - Price Discrimination (12:52) - Sanctions

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) - (04:19) - Credit Spreads (04:57) - Retail and Institutions (05:38) - Scale (06:12) - Non-Tariff Barriers (07:11) - Technology Adoption

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) - Concentrate! (07:31) - Coasian Geopolitics (09:00) - Relaunching (10:13) - Tariff Inversion (11:16) - Crypto Holdcos (12:22) - Buybacks

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 Would the Aftermath of the AI Bust Look Like? (09:37) - Succession (10:29) - The Stats (12:58) - Going Direct (13:40) - Banks are Back (14:17) - Young Founders

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) - Strip-Mining the Maybesphere (09:28) - Regulatory Clarity (10:15) - Eurobonds (11:17) - Just-In-Time (11:59) - Ratings (13:14) - The Crypto Credit Cycle

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 Finance of Alchemy (08:01) - SPACs, Back (08:46) - Sanctions and Supply Chains (09:17) - AI Filtering (10:13) - Measurement Errors (11:19) - Data Labeling

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) - Compensation as Game Design (13:00) - More on Talent (14:21) - Financial Engineering (15:06) - Where We Are in the Cycle (15:46) - Product/Service Complementarity (16:41) - The Missing Panic

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 We'll Lose With AI (09:05) - Platforms and Reputation (10:35) - General-Purpose Technologies (11:26) - Court Politics (12:46) - Post-Ozempic Snacking (13:20) - The Next Phase of Crypto Treasury Strategies

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 the Ad Economy (09:45) - Wage Elasticity (11:23) - Coopetition (11:58) - Capital Structure (12:46) - Market Breadth (14:26) - Playing Chicken

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) - Gonzo Startups (07:01) - Don't Bet on a Third World War (08:11) - Perplexity (08:39) - Equity Compensation (09:36) - Hiring (10:36) - LLM SEO!

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) - Reasoning Models Don't Really Reason, But It's Fine: Computers Don't Really Think in 1s and 0s, Either (05:51) - Guidance (06:21) - Correlated Outages (06:57) - Attrition (07:52) - Policy Impact (08:35) - Antitrust

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) - Search Remains the Best Business in History (09:38) - Equity Market Vigilantes (10:27) - Scale (11:15) - Volatility (12:02) - Tariff Impact (13:03) - Splits and Synergies

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) - Democratizing Complicated Financial Products is Inevitable, but Fraught (08:27) - Startup Fraud (09:09) - Automation (09:52) - Motivations (10:31) - Ads (11:15) - Utilization

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) - And, elsewhere: (00:03) - Banking (00:44) - Financial Engineering (01:20) - Hiring and Game Theory (02:38) - Currency Blocs (03:13) - AI SEO

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) - TK Competing Elite-Selection Mechanisms (06:39) - Left-Tail Outcomes (08:18) - Downgrades and Giffen Goods (10:21) - Bearer Instruments (11:27) - Currency (12:07) - Shipping

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) - Arbs Close, Infrastructure Remains (06:41) - Abundance and Realignment (07:17) - AI Undeath (08:11) - Basic Capital (09:42) - Tariffs (11:28) - Insurable Risks

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) - When Step One is to Light Money on Fire and Measure How Fast it Burns (06:21) - Groupchats and Norms (09:56) - Venture (10:23) - Made in America (11:08) - Real Estate Elasticity (11:47) - Lagging Investments

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) - Thinking-Things-Through Privilege (08:11) - Trade Negotiations (10:05) - M&A (11:09) - AI and IP (11:58) - Consolidation (12:42) - Sourcing

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 Economies and Institution Economies (07:58) - Distribution (09:19) - Non-Tariff Barriers (10:24) - Low-Background Text (11:08) - Application Layer (12:05) - Socks

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) - Finance as a Scale-Invariant Global Computer (06:29) - The Market (08:45) - Supply and Demand (09:38) - The March Continues (10:43) - ETFs (11:42) - Intellectual Property

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) - "Do Firms Need Juniors?" Might be the Wrong Question (06:02) - Solve for X + X (07:45) - Refactoring (08:21) - AI and Distribution (09:11) - How Models Think (10:14) - The AI Business Model

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) - There's More Than One Efficient Market Paradox (08:06) - Reciprocal Tariffs (08:46) - AI Purgatory (09:24) - Payments and Credit (10:47) - LinkedInFluencers (11:43) - Efficient Markets

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) - Klarna and the Two Pivots of 2022 (11:00) - Crypto Adoption (12:26) - Art Margin Calls (13:13) - Liquidations (14:07) - Corporate Espionage (15:26) - DeepSeek

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) - Text and Telos (07:03) - Scaling (07:49) - Retail Investors (09:12) - Comparative Advantage (09:47) - Transaction Costs and Corporate Structure (10:58) - DeepSeek Governance

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) - Tools, Agents, Interfaces, and Synthetic Luck: AI Interaction Models (06:40) - Lyft Got Fined For Telling the Truth and is Now Compelled to Lie to Drivers (09:59) - Ozempic and Signaling (10:41) - Wargaming and Pivots

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) - Tokenomics, Revisited (04:41) - AI and Education (06:59) - Money Laundering (07:54) - Agglomeration Economics (08:49) - Threat Models (09:24) - Universal Hardware

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) - And, elsewhere: (00:01) - Capital Structure (01:12) - Designer Brands and Transaction Costs (02:45) - SMBs (04:27) - Top-Down Market Reform (05:10) - Chosen Obligations

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) - Money and Legitimacy (06:53) - Moats (07:36) - Big Tech Sees Like a State (08:43) - Shifting Costs (09:31) - Managing Macro (10:11) - Experimentation

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) - Auto-Paternalism (05:11) - Growth (06:58) - AI Deployment (08:06) - S-Curves and TV (09:04) - Increasing the Asymptote (10:00) - China

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) - Look for Boring First (07:27) - Moderation (08:46) - ex-SBC (10:26) - Platform Risk (12:51) - Strategic Resources (13:40) - Meta and AI

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) - Will The EU Choose to Compete? (13:45) - Unit Economics (15:02) - Coreweave and Capital Structure Arbitrage (15:57) - AI and the Distribution Problem (17:10) - Markets and Narratives (18:15) - Convergence