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Comment by whynot-123 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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According to Ben (the author and proprietor of Stratechery) every major influential VC firm and/or head subscribes. He once remarked that something to the effect of there's no major VC that isn't subscribed, I deliver email to their inboxes daily. I do think he's also quite popular with many big time CEOs (Mark Zuckerburg being a confirmed subscriber for one. Who knows who reads what though).

I'm not sure if that means anything though, to be quite honest.

That said, I think its really the business of technology, and that could make this useful, but for ICs or those on a more technical path that don't plan on owning a business? That is less direct.

All of this is to say, I think the more one understands the systems at play in which they live and work, the better they are at making informed decisions, especially about where to work. I left a job a few years ago for another one at a company that was working in the space that publications like this were talking about - but the market itself hadn't seen as high growing fields yet - and having that ahead of time analysis lead me to believe it would be lucrative for me to switch companies, and that really did work out for me.

> According to Ben (the author and proprietor of Stratechery) every major influential VC firm and/or head subscribes

To play the devils advocate - its important for leaders to know how their companies/efforts are generally perceived - whether or not the analysis itself is accurate is immaterial.

Secondly, the newsletter may simply be a way to learn about recent events. These folk have in-house analysts with possibly better quality data

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.

It's entertainment in the form of macro level tech industry analysis. Some people enjoy that. Others like news, TV shows, gaming, books, etc

Interesting that you use the word "impact", which I interpret as software engineer performance review jargon to quantify the larger results of engineering work, and the word "alpha" which I interpret as financial jargon to indicate some investment advantage. I think reading anything is at best just a starting point to moving the needle on any of those, and will provide nothing without further action. That said, I see two kinds of value:

If you are operating in a business-level capacity in tech where you have shallow but potentially valuable interactions with a lot of other people in the industry (eg, founder, operator, salesperson, marketer, etc), then there is significant value in reading the same things they do so you can anticipate their state of mind and have plenty of fodder for small talk. Your VC friends' comments notwithstanding, I think this is probably the biggest direct impact.

Secondarily, I think there is a good amount of passive value in reading good industry analysis if you ever want to run your own business or rise to a level of contributing strategic input within an established business. This is less of a straight line, but considering all the garbage put out by even reputable mainstream publications, and the sheer volume of zero-value entertainment options, I think reading expert analysis by well-informed, well-written and consistently committed individual authors is probably one of best ways to get quality information. That is no small thing in today's world.

All that said, I think you are right that focusing on your family and more local concerns will probably be higher ROI, but it depends what you're optimizing for.

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.

Personally I find that if I read something that I enjoy, I’ll usually find a way to incorporate it into my life somehow. For Stratechery and information economics in particular, it’s been finding ways to leverage my skills to make myself indispensable professionally.

I read it because I think about these kind of things quite a bit. I used to do so for a living but now days I do it because I still find it interesting. Ben is a very good analyst. He doesn't get everything right but this is a field where that's not really possible. He's as good or better than anyone I know of and I also appreciate he does review where he's been wrong and, even better, spends time exploring why.

I agree with you. I just read it for fun. And that’s still worth it

There's no impact in reading anything.

The impact comes with what you do with what you've read.

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