Stratechery is hit or miss in my view. It epitomises the definition: "An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy."
I'd recommend giving it the occasional gander.
You're only depriving yourself of an important perspective in this case.
He's open to arguments and is extremely reasonable. If you're only looking for writing that agrees with what you already believe then you might be disappointed, but if you're looking for extremely thoughtful thinking on strategy and technology then you won't find anyone better than Ben.
It's not just a blog, it's a paid publication with a ton of research and effort behind it.
This essay reflects a profound failure of imagination with respect to the present and future of online tracking, and the risk it poses to consumers and citizens. This is an issue which is at the heart of the business models and strategy of the world's most powerful corporations, so in my opinion having this blind spot (or, perhaps, degree of ethical flexibility) seriously undermines the veracity and objectivity of his analysis in many areas.
Say some company found that they could pay landlords to let them borrow everyone's keys, and used them to go inside while you are out and stick an ad inside your bathroom where you will see it when you're taking a dump. Sure, the ad is harmless. But you can't just shrug it off because then you've accepted the principle that companies can pay your landlord for access to you and your house.
But even all that aside, by your own words, it's not his treatments of the facts but his failure to account for the worst possible hypothetical situation that you have imagined in this specific area that is most important to you that makes him an unreliable journalist on any-and-all subjects? I would challenge you that this is an unhealthy purity test for him to pass.
1. To be clear, I am specifically referring to cloudflare because it's the service under question. I have no opinion on Cloudflare or knowledge of any specific and current privacy issues.
He's said a few interesting things but how much of what he writes can you use to make better choices yourself? Almost nothing.
I realized that for how insanely smart he is in analyzing business plans he ultimately worships the rich and despises collective power.
I now HN loves that kind of rhetoric but yeah, I’m not really a fan anymore.
I don't understand, this article seems completely reasonable. He's asking people to think critically about their absolutist takes.