The Argument Index
Debate potential by speaker, the highest-scored statement each year, and the companies with the most bearish calls on record. All of it clickable, all of it playable.
People
Average debate potential by speaker
All 37 guests with 5 or more scored statements, ranked. 9 more have fewer than 5, too few for a fair average, and the host is scored on his own page. Sort or filter below.
| # | Person | Avg debate potential | Statements scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Ries Founder & CEO, Long-Term Stock Exchange | 2.56 | 18 |
| 2 | Arman Hazarkhani | 2.5 | 10 |
| 3 | Ben Tossell Founder, Ben's Bites | 2.33 | 12 |
| 4 | Ethan Smith CEO and Founder, Graphite | 2.32 | 22 |
| 5 | Jordan Harbinger Host and Founder, The Jordan Harbinger Show | 2.31 | 16 |
| 6 | Garry Tan President & CEO, Y Combinator | 2.28 | 18 |
| 7 | Helen Hastings Founder & CEO, Quanta | 2.24 | 21 |
| 8 | Alex Lieberman Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Morning Brew | 2.22 | 9 |
| 9 | Seth Godin Author, Speaker, and Teacher, Seth's Blog | 2.22 | 23 |
| 10 | David Shim Co-Founder and CEO, Read AI | 2.17 | 18 |
| 11 | Ben Cera Founder and CEO, Polsia | 2.15 | 39 |
| 12 | Cameron Herold Founder, COO Alliance | 2.14 | 22 |
| 13 | Ricardo Vice Santos Founder and CEO, DreamStories | 2.12 | 17 |
| 14 | Neil Patel Co-Founder, NP Digital | 2.09 | 11 |
| 15 | Elad Gil Founder, Gil Capital | 2.06 | 17 |
| 16 | Nevo David Founder, Postiz | 2 | 7 |
| 17 | Pat Walls Founder, Starter Story | 2 | 13 |
| 18 | Mark Suster Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures | 2 | 5 |
| 19 | Josh Mohrer | 1.9 | 21 |
| 20 | Ryan Allis Founder and CEO, SaasRise | 1.89 | 18 |
| 21 | Tarun Thummala | 1.86 | 14 |
| 22 | Sam Ovens Co-Founder and CEO, Skool | 1.86 | 14 |
| 23 | Rob Howard Founder & CEO, Innovating with AI | 1.85 | 13 |
| 24 | Dan Shipper Co-Founder and CEO, Every | 1.84 | 19 |
| 25 | Steve Huffman Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Reddit | 1.83 | 29 |
| 26 | Anirudh Singla Founder & CEO, Pepper | 1.78 | 18 |
| 27 | Jon Cheney Founder & CEO, GenAIPI | 1.75 | 20 |
| 28 | Evgeny Matze Co-founder & CEO, Rezora | 1.73 | 11 |
| 29 | Pavel Dolezal CEO & Co-founder, Keboola | 1.71 | 14 |
| 30 | Wade Foster Co-founder & CEO, Zapier | 1.68 | 37 |
| 31 | Joe Apfelbaum CEO and Founder, evyAI | 1.65 | 20 |
| 32 | Brian Chesky Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb | 1.64 | 14 |
| 33 | Ryan Carson Founder & CEO, Untangle | 1.6 | 10 |
| 34 | Nat Eliason Program Director of Founders School, Alpha School | 1.58 | 12 |
| 35 | Mikael Yang Co-Founder and CEO, Manychat | 1.53 | 15 |
| 36 | Shane Mac Co-founder and CEO, XMTP Labs | 1.33 | 6 |
| 37 | Jermaine Griggs Founder & CEO, Hear and Play Music | 1.18 | 11 |
Companies
The most bearish calls
Debate potential is an AI score of how much a statement invites disagreement. Bearish counts tally what was said about a company on the show; they describe the conversation, not the company. Every count opens to the exact tape. full disclaimer →
All 58 companies, funds and products with at least one bearish claim on the record.
| Company | Bearish statements | Of which 4–5 |
|---|---|---|
| Quanta company | 6 ↓ | 1 |
| QuickBooks product | 5 ↓ | 1 |
| Polsia company | 4 ↓ | — |
| Claude Code product | 4 ↓ | 1 |
| Wave AI company | 3 ↓ | 1 |
| OpenAI company | 3 ↓ | — |
| ChatGPT product | 3 ↓ | — |
| Anthropic company | 3 ↓ | — |
| Zapier company | 2 ↓ | — |
| Uber company | 2 ↓ | — |
| Twitter company | 2 ↓ | — |
| Reddit company | 2 ↓ | — |
| Read.ai company | 2 ↓ | — |
| OpenClaw product | 2 ↓ | — |
| Google company | 2 ↓ | 1 |
| Meta company | 2 ↓ | — |
| Claude product | 2 ↓ | — |
| ZERRO.biz company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Y Combinator fund | 1 ↓ | — |
| Stitcher company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Sora product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Rezora company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Replit company | 1 ↓ | — |
| QuickBooks Desktop product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Python product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Pulsia company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Plaid company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Pilot company | 1 ↓ | 1 |
| PHP product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Pepper Content company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Pandora company | 1 ↓ | — |
| The New York Times company | 1 ↓ | 1 |
| N8n company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Lovable company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Kodak company | 1 ↓ | 1 |
| JMI Equity fund | 1 ↓ | — |
| JavaScript product | 1 ↓ | — |
| IContact company | 1 ↓ | — |
| HubSpot company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Gmail product | 1 ↓ | — |
| FTX company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Finicity company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Drip company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Dream Stories product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Digg company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Cursor product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Codex CLI product | 1 ↓ | — |
| Booking.com company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Bench Accounting company | 1 ↓ | — |
| The Art Of Charm company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Answer.ai company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Amazon Web Services company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Amazon company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Ajax Union company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Airtable company | 1 ↓ | — |
| Airbnb company | 1 ↓ | — |
| ABC Books company | 1 ↓ | — |
| The 4 Hour Workweek product | 1 ↓ | — |
Highest debate potential, by year
2026
2025
Hazarkhani: Autonomous 24-hour digital employees will arrive before 2027
“Yeah, I would be more bullish than that person. I would say that it's actually much sooner.”
Lieberman asserts corporate claims that AI will not eliminate jobs are false
“Well, I mean, my, one thing I would say just specifically to the truism you just said, is I really just think it is, like, Bullshit. And like, basically every executive is like on one hand being like, how can I use AI in my company? On the other hand is saying…”
2017
Herold: Hiring for attitude over experience caps company growth at 10 percent
“The days of hiring people for attitude and training for skill, the days of hiring the kind of master all trades or jack of all trades, master of none that gets you seven to 10% growth, but it doesn't get you the hyper growth.”
Herold: True entrepreneurs are born with necessary traits, not made
“Entrepreneurs have to be born with the entrepreneurial traits, and then they can be nurtured. But I don't think you can take a person and make them an entrepreneur. You're either entrepreneurial or you're not. And some of that is the craziness. It is the ADD, …”