Three headlines this week that tell one story. The biggest AI lab filed to go public. A 20-year-old software company invented 13 new kinds of jobs. And the most level-headed analyst in tech says we're asking the wrong question about AI and work.

The popular story is that AI shrinks work. The evidence says it makes work cheaper. And cheap work means more of it gets done. Welcome to issue one.

Anthropic filed for its IPO. The S-1 went in confidentially on June 1, right after a $65B round at a valuation near $965B. Revenue is reportedly running at $47B, up from $10B a year ago. OpenAI and SpaceX are lining up behind them.

Why you should care: when that S-1 becomes public, founders get their first audited look at AI economics. Real margins, real costs, no more guessing from podcast vibes. It also means your AI vendors are turning into public utilities. Pick them for durability, not novelty.

Box created 13 new job categories. Headcount went up, not down. The NYT profiled how AI pushed Box to invent roles that didn't exist before: AI architect, AI solutions manager, forward-deployed engineers. The company grew from 2,900 employees toward 3,000 and change. Aaron Levie put it plainly: you're now "hiring one or two to do the work of 10," because work that used to be too expensive suddenly pencils out.

The optimistic read: this is the Jevons paradox showing up in payroll. When execution gets cheap, ambition gets funded. Markets you couldn't justify attacking last year are now affordable.

From Benedict Evans on Lenny's Podcast (May 31). Stop asking what percent of a job AI can do. Ask whether the thing in front of you is a task or a job. AI automates tasks. A job is a bundle of tasks plus judgment, relationships, and accountability. When the tasks get cheap, the judgment gets more valuable.

His other anchor: if AI is the internet, this is 1997. Early, messy, and very real.

Try this Monday: take your three most expensive roles and write out their tasks. Circle everything that's a task. Whatever is left is the job. Protect it, and give it the hours the circled stuff used to eat.

🎧 Full episode: lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-rational-conversation-on-where

Sumble. It mines the world's job postings and turns them into company intelligence. Look up any prospect and open their Active Initiatives page to see what they're actually building, based on who they're hiring and which skills they're paying for. Do this before your next sales call. Job postings are the most honest thing a company publishes. Fitting theme for this issue.

Derek Sivers defined marketing in five words: it just means being considerate. Trillion-dollar filings come and go. Consideration doesn't reprice. Every touchpoint is marketing. The onboarding email, the invoice, the 404 page. Each one is a chance to be considerate, or not.

Technology changes what work costs. It doesn't change what people remember.

You're among the first people reading this, which makes you a founding reader whether you like it or not. Hit reply and tell me two things: one thing to keep, one thing to cut, or what you like to see in future editions.
I read and answer every reply. Issue two gets built from what you send.

— PingMunk