Tag: Ben Thompson

October 23, 2016

The IT Era and the Internet Revolution

people in the pre-Internet era didn’t read local newspapers because holding an unwieldy ink-staining piece of flimsy newsprint was particularly enjoyable; people read local newspapers because it was the only option. And, by extension, people don’t avoid local newspapers’ websites because the reading experience sucks — although that is true — they don’t even think to visit them because there are far better ways to occupy their finite attention.

Ben Thompson – The IT Era and the Internet Revolution.

May 28, 2015

Feeds and Speeds for Life. Episode 38 of Ben Thompson’s Exponent podcast. Ben and James talk about the value of opportunities, advice, and MBAs. There’s a particularly interesting segment where they talk about whether tech’s diversity problem is primarily a supply or demand side issue.

May 14, 2015

Tradeoffs. Episode 36 of Ben Thompson’s Exponent podcast. I’ve been catching up on past episodes lately and this one’s really good. It focuses on the tradeoffs inherent to net neutrality considerations. If you don’t already, I’d also highly recommend subscribing to Ben’s Daily Update.

November 5, 2014

Publishers and the Smiling Curve. Astute analysis from Ben Thompson on the problems facing traditional publishing companies. The key issue is that they no longer hold an exclusive on creation nor discovery of content; the two most valuable ends of the curve.

October 15, 2014

The Diminished iPad. Ben Thompson writes about the diminishing importance of the iPad. I love my iPad Mini as a reading device. But, I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the same level of necessity as my iPhone and MacBook.

October 1, 2014

The Internet Rainforest. Great podcast episode from Ben Thompson and James Allworth about the changing economy. I dig the discussion about the individual autonomy this all provides for.

June 27, 2014

Economic Power in the Age of Abundance:

The obvious reaction to this case, as with the Belgian one, is to marvel at the publisher’s nerve; after all, as we saw with the Belgians, Google is driving traffic from which the publishers profit. “Ganz im Gegenteil!” say the publishers. “Google would not exist without our content.” And, at a very high level, I suppose that’s true, but it’s true in a way that doesn’t matter, and understanding why it doesn’t matter gets at the core reason why traditional journalistic institutions are having so much trouble in the Internet era.

October 12, 2013

What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong. Fantastic essay from Ben Thompson about Clayton Christensen, Apple, and theories of disruption.