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Does anyone know any other tech publications at the level of Stratechery? Ben Thompson seems to get his analysis right and provide useful correct perspectives m

Does anyone know any other tech publications at the level of Stratechery? Ben Thompson seems to get his analysis right and provide useful correct perspectives more than basically anyone else I’ve seen.

samsolomon 3y ago
About tech specifically or more general quality publications? Looking through my RSS feed there's a few newsletters/blogs I really love. - Casey Newton's Platformer - Maybe slightly more media than tech focused - Noahpinion - Economics and policy - Matt Levine's Money Stuff - Entertaining financial analysis - Silver Bulletin - Nate Silver's sports and political analysis newsletter EDIT: Sorry misread your question—Platformer would be my recommendation.
- natdempk 3y ago
  Thanks! Money Stuff is great and of a similar caliber for sure. I think Platformer is solid, but seems to fall a bit more into media-punditry, though there are a lot of interesting reported stories which you don't get on Stratechery. I don't really read the other two, but I'll check them out. I do think Noah Smith falls into a category I'm wary of, which is folks who seem to cast their net really wide, but not super familiar with his work so hard to criticize specifically. Maybe he is really good too.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Galichev 3y ago
IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org https://spectrum.ieee.org MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com https://www.technologyreview.com
martinky24 3y ago
The Pragmatic Engineer [1] is the other main place I follow. They complement each other nicely. [1]: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/
- flakiness 3y ago
  To clarify: The newsletter is his main avenue: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/about https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/about He's more on the industry insider side than industry analyst side. It's interesting, but not like Stratechery. He's on the top of the substack tech category. There is Platformer too. https://substack.com/discover/category/technology/paid https://substack.com/discover/category/technology/paid This list may interest you since substack seems to be the primary place for serious (and wannabe) writers these days.
ajkjk 3y ago
Same, but really wish he was less of an apologist for corporations; I guess a lot of his readership are corporate people who are interested in justifying the world they run, but it constantly rubs the wrong way if you're at all skeptical of, like, giant business or ads or AI... at a social level. Basically I'd love to find a publication that's similar but better reflects my values.
- natdempk 3y ago
  I get it, but also I think this is one of the things that makes Ben so good at his job and is also a bit more nuanced than might initially appear. He (mostly) isn't interested in being an activist for a certain perspective and really just seems to think about things in terms of systems, incentives, and revealed preferences as they exist today. I think this can butt heads with idealist types who want things to be a different way, but to me it's a big part of what makes his writing and analysis so good.
  - SamBam 3y ago
    You may be right, but you may also be exemplifying am unconscious bias that pro-corporate/pro-existing-power-structures = neutral, and anti- those things is "idealist" and so not neutral.
    - natdempk 3y ago
      This is not really how I think about things. I think of idealist = different from current reality based on some principles. Often to me idealist also means that they wish things were different from the way they ended up on ideological grounds, but those grounds are incompatible with the current incentives/systems that led to the current state for some reason. I don't really think the current system is neutral, more that is just is what exists today for some reasons, and that anything else proposed has to actually contend with those reasons/forces/incentives.
- grantc 3y ago
  You could browse the fiction shelves at a local bookseller; they may have things approximating what you seek.
whynot-123 3y ago
I wonder does reading anything at the level of stratechary make any impact? I use to religiously read this blog and matt l.'s 6-8 years ago, then i started growing my family and haven't read it in years - I realized 3 years ago, there was no difference in my life, the trajectory of my career, or my understanding of the tech industry without these blogs. I also have 2 VC friends who say blogs like these waste their time. I always thought I was gaining an alpha by reading these blogs, but going into my 40s, I have yet to see any benefit.
- ativzzz 3y ago
  It's entertainment in the form of macro level tech industry analysis. Some people enjoy that. Others like news, TV shows, gaming, books, etc
- davee5 3y ago
  I definitely use his blog to be thoughtfully informed when it matters. As a 40ish startup guy myself I take on many roles, including helping set product and technology strategies. But I also need to work in the weeds most of the time and don't often have the opportunity or headspace to just ponder the big picture, so having someone else inject perspective at the right time can be very useful. Thus I tend to read Bens work in huge gulps as a new project kicks off, grabbing as much perspective as possible to feed a new initiative with ideas that have evolved and simmered over time. Moreover, being able to think at a strategic, systems level about the technology landscape is a trained mindset and it helps to have sources of inspiration accordingly. Reading the work of people who think in ways you also wish to be able to think seems like good training for your mental muscles. Like all commentary and advice you learn to keep what you think is relevant and supplement it with your own information and ideas, but having the framework and the examples can absolutely push your further, faster.
- erhserhdfd 3y ago
  I've had a similar thought. I read a LOT of these various blogs and I frequently ask myself whether its valuable and how much time I should invest in these. I've concluded its probably valuable and a few hours a week is probably the right amount of time. I think where the value lies is in when I am asked to give input into product or technology strategy. Having a broader understand of the technology ecosystem is a useful foundation for making recommendations to my specific scenario.
turnsout 3y ago
Really? He strikes me as professionally wrong. I still find some of his stuff interesting because it challenges my own perspective, but man… he's an expert at stretching a Tweet-length thought to 5,000 words.
- natdempk 3y ago
  Who do you find is generally right about the tech industry more often?
thomasjudge 3y ago
Honestly I feel like it is really overrated
ahoang18 3y ago
Not a (single) publication, but I really like a lot of James Somers stuff: https://jsomers.net/ https://jsomers.net/ Seems to be scattered between his blog and a few major publications
simonebrunozzi 3y ago
I find Scott Galloway's predictions always useful, albeit less focused on tech, compared to Ben Thompson.

samsolomon 3y ago

About tech specifically or more general quality publications? Looking through my RSS feed there's a few newsletters/blogs I really love. - Casey Newton's Platformer - Maybe slightly more media than tech focused - Noahpinion - Economics and policy - Matt Levine's Money Stuff - Entertaining financial analysis - Silver Bulletin - Nate Silver's sports and political analysis newsletter EDIT: Sorry misread your question—Platformer would be my recommendation.

natdempk 3y ago
Thanks! Money Stuff is great and of a similar caliber for sure. I think Platformer is solid, but seems to fall a bit more into media-punditry, though there are a lot of interesting reported stories which you don't get on Stratechery. I don't really read the other two, but I'll check them out. I do think Noah Smith falls into a category I'm wary of, which is folks who seem to cast their net really wide, but not super familiar with his work so hard to criticize specifically. Maybe he is really good too.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Galichev 3y ago

IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org https://spectrum.ieee.org MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com https://www.technologyreview.com

martinky24 3y ago

The Pragmatic Engineer [1] is the other main place I follow. They complement each other nicely. [1]: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/

flakiness 3y ago
To clarify: The newsletter is his main avenue: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/about https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/about He's more on the industry insider side than industry analyst side. It's interesting, but not like Stratechery. He's on the top of the substack tech category. There is Platformer too. https://substack.com/discover/category/technology/paid https://substack.com/discover/category/technology/paid This list may interest you since substack seems to be the primary place for serious (and wannabe) writers these days.

ajkjk 3y ago

Same, but really wish he was less of an apologist for corporations; I guess a lot of his readership are corporate people who are interested in justifying the world they run, but it constantly rubs the wrong way if you're at all skeptical of, like, giant business or ads or AI... at a social level. Basically I'd love to find a publication that's similar but better reflects my values.

natdempk 3y ago
I get it, but also I think this is one of the things that makes Ben so good at his job and is also a bit more nuanced than might initially appear. He (mostly) isn't interested in being an activist for a certain perspective and really just seems to think about things in terms of systems, incentives, and revealed preferences as they exist today. I think this can butt heads with idealist types who want things to be a different way, but to me it's a big part of what makes his writing and analysis so good.
- SamBam 3y ago
  You may be right, but you may also be exemplifying am unconscious bias that pro-corporate/pro-existing-power-structures = neutral, and anti- those things is "idealist" and so not neutral.
  - natdempk 3y ago
    This is not really how I think about things. I think of idealist = different from current reality based on some principles. Often to me idealist also means that they wish things were different from the way they ended up on ideological grounds, but those grounds are incompatible with the current incentives/systems that led to the current state for some reason. I don't really think the current system is neutral, more that is just is what exists today for some reasons, and that anything else proposed has to actually contend with those reasons/forces/incentives.
grantc 3y ago
You could browse the fiction shelves at a local bookseller; they may have things approximating what you seek.

whynot-123 3y ago

I wonder does reading anything at the level of stratechary make any impact? I use to religiously read this blog and matt l.'s 6-8 years ago, then i started growing my family and haven't read it in years - I realized 3 years ago, there was no difference in my life, the trajectory of my career, or my understanding of the tech industry without these blogs. I also have 2 VC friends who say blogs like these waste their time. I always thought I was gaining an alpha by reading these blogs, but going into my 40s, I have yet to see any benefit.

ativzzz 3y ago
It's entertainment in the form of macro level tech industry analysis. Some people enjoy that. Others like news, TV shows, gaming, books, etc
davee5 3y ago
I definitely use his blog to be thoughtfully informed when it matters. As a 40ish startup guy myself I take on many roles, including helping set product and technology strategies. But I also need to work in the weeds most of the time and don't often have the opportunity or headspace to just ponder the big picture, so having someone else inject perspective at the right time can be very useful. Thus I tend to read Bens work in huge gulps as a new project kicks off, grabbing as much perspective as possible to feed a new initiative with ideas that have evolved and simmered over time. Moreover, being able to think at a strategic, systems level about the technology landscape is a trained mindset and it helps to have sources of inspiration accordingly. Reading the work of people who think in ways you also wish to be able to think seems like good training for your mental muscles. Like all commentary and advice you learn to keep what you think is relevant and supplement it with your own information and ideas, but having the framework and the examples can absolutely push your further, faster.
erhserhdfd 3y ago
I've had a similar thought. I read a LOT of these various blogs and I frequently ask myself whether its valuable and how much time I should invest in these. I've concluded its probably valuable and a few hours a week is probably the right amount of time. I think where the value lies is in when I am asked to give input into product or technology strategy. Having a broader understand of the technology ecosystem is a useful foundation for making recommendations to my specific scenario.

turnsout 3y ago

Really? He strikes me as professionally wrong. I still find some of his stuff interesting because it challenges my own perspective, but man… he's an expert at stretching a Tweet-length thought to 5,000 words.

natdempk 3y ago
Who do you find is generally right about the tech industry more often?

thomasjudge 3y ago

Honestly I feel like it is really overrated

ahoang18 3y ago

Not a (single) publication, but I really like a lot of James Somers stuff: https://jsomers.net/ https://jsomers.net/ Seems to be scattered between his blog and a few major publications

simonebrunozzi 3y ago

I find Scott Galloway's predictions always useful, albeit less focused on tech, compared to Ben Thompson.