hey. it's wil.

find the entire series at www.uponconsideration.com.

transcript

It is Wednesday, November 4th. I was up late last night, watching some of the coverage, so I did not get out for my morning walk. Instead, I’m recording this from my studio in New York City. Over the past, certainly the last few days, and I’d say until last week I’ve been reading the anthropic s1 now

before you go I’m not talking about it from a quantitative perspective rather I’m thinking about it from a qualitative a positioning perspective In other words, with the lawyers in the room, what is Anthropic saying about itself? And how does that match to what we’re hearing, you know, this doom scenario or this world change scenario?

How does that match up with what Anthropic is saying in its S1 SEC filing? About what it says it is. And so over the last week, I’ve written a few articles. One, just generally about the SEC and how great these filings are. Two, to talk a little bit about the Anthropic S1 reports,

talk a little bit about its positioning, what it says its position is basically through its messaging, positioning that’s built on the inside, the messaging then goes out, and that’s how those two work together. I don’t get into the quantitative pieces, however, I do think about it from a mission standpoint, and when they talk about their mission,

that quickly ties into some quantitative pieces, which is interesting, but kind of not really relevant for you know from a qualitative review standpoint I’ve got two more pieces I’ll put out today’s wednesday one will go out today the fourth I think or fifth

and last one will go out tomorrow and then I’ll start doing a bit of a media push and then start on the next series that I’ll work on which I’ll get into probably on friday Anyway, I hope that you read this, this series. Obviously, I think it’s important.

I think one of the big pieces that I’m taking away from this, you know, kind of mid, you know, publishing is that much like Webvan, if you remember Webvan and much like Google back in the day, when they filed their S1s to offer their shares publicly, The approaches that those two took,

both from a going public approach in Google’s instance and how Webvan was delivering its products, both of those were novel. They were new. What’s different, I think in this case, certainly what Anthropic and the other AI companies are doing is new. The one thing that I keep thinking back to is their business model.

Now that would have to get into a lot of quantitative research, which is maybe something we can look at in the future. However, I think from a business model standpoint, that is what they’re suggesting is novel. They say it in one of their first lines in the S1 filing.

It is a novel approach to running an organization, to raising funds, to producing a you know, potential global eliminating product. Everything is novel. And I think the interesting thing for that is, you know kind of in today’s market, a lot of stuff is the same. I’m a big fan of Apple products. Their customer experience is amazing.

I now, you know, consider that an investment versus a PC. Which I did use, you know, my first computers was more of a cost. That model is more or less in today’s world, right? Sell the devices and sell content. And then that way that you can get recurring revenue.

Really off of both of them, but from an integrated standpoint, they play very, very well together. You think about this from Amazon, you think about this from Meta, they’re all trying to do the same thing, own the device, own the platform that comes off of that and all the content and recurring revenue that comes from that.

Yet Anthropics seems to be doing something a little different. And I think that’s where that novel approach is. So I would just consider as you read through the Anthropics series, keep that in the back of your mind. It’s a novel approach, novel organization, novel capital infrastructure, 100%.

However, it all leads back to a novel business model, which I think is going to be interesting. And it’ll be really interesting to see certainly how some of these other AI players start coming into their own S1 filings and we can have a better understanding of what their business model looks like.

Certainly some of these S1 filings will come out in maybe the first quarter of next year. You know, kind of with this change in politics, I think it’s gonna be a little tougher for some of these AI companies. They were cooking steak out last night and all I can think about is A1 sauce.

Some of these AI companies that go public next year, I think there’s gonna be just a bigger scrutiny, certainly on, you know, data centers and costs. However, let’s see what their business model looks like too. Is it the same as what Anthropic is suggesting? Is it something new?

That’s it I hope you go read the series it is at uponconsideration.com and I’ll talk to you in the next one

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

i’ve been walking a lot lately.

many times, especially early in the morning, it’s on my own. always with camera and some gear with me. i travel light and minimal, generally, and this is no exception.

lately, i’ve been playing around with wondering how can we be present in today’s incredibly divisive and chaotic world.

so i started reading and listening and watching content geared towards just that, and i’ve been writing and recording and filming content to see how i can get from here to there.

i’m creating these pieces in a story i’m calling on being human. and i’m collecting these pieces on my website, www.wiljr.org.

this audio piece was recorded on tuesday, september 29, 2026. it’s a short-ish piece to help me get some things out of my head.

the cover photo was taken a few days earlier, on september 27, looking down columbus avenue towards midtown.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

a new york city photo walk from the west side to the guggenheim and back.

what is this?

i went for a walk in august that ended up being a pretty good example of why i like photographing new york: i started on the west side of manhattan, walked across central pPark, went up fifth avenue past the met and the guggenheim museums, and then came back across the park to buy fruit at a fruit stand.

i took 135 photographs along the way.

and looking back at them, i realized i wasn’t really photographing the places i was walking through.

i was photographing the things that made me stop.

i thought it’d be fun to show-and-tell through these photos.

so this is the first behind those shots video, of me trying to remember why i took those shots.

shorts and stuff.

the shorts i’ve been making → are pretty simple:

* i walk

* i see something

* i photograph it

* i make a very short video

there’s obviously more to the photograph than what fits into twelve-ish seconds.

so i wanted to experiment with something longer.

* this isn’t really a photography tutorial.

* it’s not a vlog.

* and it’s not really a gear show.

it’s more like sitting down after a walk and talking through what i saw.

i walk around new york city a lot. i photograph a lot.

and i’ve started to realize that the interesting part isn’t necessarily the photograph itself.

it’s the reason i stopped to take it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

Talking to myself

Ever seen the streets before the cameras and talent come out for film day?

This morning’s observation

What struck me about the recent Meta restructuring wasn’t the technology or even the haphazard way it was rolled out. It was the assumption that removing people automatically makes an organization more efficient.

* The work rarely disappears.

* More often, the coordination disappears.

Every organization has people whose primary job is connecting teams, translating priorities and reducing confusion.

What happens when those people are removed faster than the organization learns to work without them?

This morning’s photos

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

Audio only.

Highlights from this morning’s walk:

* It’s humid out

* The lighting was amazing

* Is the world moving to the (far) left?

* Big rain storm coming

* How do I respond to comments?

Photos from this walk…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

Day 2 of testing a live (and recorded) audio format as I walk around New York City in the morning.

Photos from today’s walk.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

I’ve always wanted to create my own radio show.

Here’s test one.

Test two tomorrow.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

May 14, 2026

I walk around New York City and Central Park in the morning, taking photos with a newly added 50mm lens. Personal operating systems, expectations, case studies, photos and sports.

* Referenced case study: https://thenewcommunicate.com/#alignment-in-practice

* Contact me: [email protected]

* No guest requests. It’s a solo joint.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

I have a few of these shorts lined up. While these are my first attempts at creating short(er) videos, I'd like to try doing some narrative voiceovers to add a little context to the video. (Maybe, like, read a piece from a book or poem or song?)

Note: Initially posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD_61Isu3Vc.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com

Only 30% of enterprises have fully moved to the cloud, yet we are already sprinting toward AI. The result?

A 95% failure rate for AI initiatives.

In this episode, I talk about why high-performance teams are failing at the finish line and why “team onboarding” must include a consistent decision-making framework to protect your margins and your sanity.

Links:

• Ben Evans: www.ben-evans.com

• The Governance Partner: hialex.cc

• Strategic Consulting: thenewcommunicate.com

• Weekly Insights: uponconsideration.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wiljr.substack.com