Ben Thompson: evaluation

Transcript context

…Now I have a few questions about what I call the Ben Thompson production function. How does being from Wisconsin shape what you’ve done? I would say significantly. The most obvious impact is, I was raised very blue-collar, small-town Wisconsin, just being more in touch with and aware of the world between the coasts. The not elite at all. One place this manifested very clearly was, I was very bullish on Facebook very early, even when they were in their doldrums or on the IPO and things like that, saying this company — the potential here is just absolutely massive. Part of that came from the fact that, where I’m from in Wisconsin, Facebook is everything. It is the social network. No one’s on Twitter. People know of Twitter; they don’t use it. They’re aware of it, but it’s not a thing. That really gets to Facebook’s power. Facebook has penetrated so thoroughly everywhere. And why? Because Facebook is the digitization of your friends and family. Where I’m from, friends and family is very central in a way that in Silicon Valley — where a lot of people are running away from their friends and family to pursue this dream or to get away — is less cognizant of. How would you describe your media diet? What do you do to stay current?…

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