Anthropic has soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets. Shares are almost impossible to get.

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

• Since Anthropic has yet to go public, most investors are forced to buy shares via secondary markets.
• The AI company soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on a popular secondary exchange.
• Even at that high price, getting shares is a Herculean task as almost no one wants to sell.

Anthropic has soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets, but even at that astronomic price, good luck getting shares.

"Anthropic is the most sought-after company the venture secondary market has ever seen," said Javier Avalos, cofounder and CEO of Caplight, a secondary trading platform, where shares are trading at $1.2 trillion.

Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, a merchant bank focused on private securities transactions, said he is also seeing transactions at $1.2 trillion, though deals remain rare because there are few sellers.

It was less than three months ago that Business Insider reported Anthropic reached a $1 trillion valuation, overtaking OpenAI for the first time. OpenAI, which had been valued much higher for years, is now valued at $908 billion on Caplight.

Anthropic's $1.2 trillion valuation represents a 550% year-over-year increase, according to Avalos.

The company was last valued at $965 billion in a Series H funding round announced in May. Last month, it filed paperwork to go public, with an expected IPO in the next few months.

Since Anthropic and OpenAI have yet to go public, the vast majority of investors are forced to buy via secondary markets, where existing stock is sold by employees or early investors. With the stock soaring, few are willing to part with their shares, and there have been a bevy of shady deals with high fees and byzantine ownership structures. Many have been structured as SPVs, or special-purpose vehicles, which allow investors to pool their funds for a single, one-off deal.

Anthropic declined to comment for this story. On its website, it has lately become more explicit in warning against unauthorized stock sales and scams.

"Invest at your own risk: if someone offers you a way to participate, even on an indirect basis, in an investment in Anthropic, assume that it is invalid," the company warns.

Still, many people have been willing to accept the risks, lest they miss out on what they see as the AI gold rush.

"Most of the supply we have seen in the market has been via SPV structures the company is openly against," Avalos said, adding many of those SPVs come with high fees.

Some interested buyers have gotten more creative, offering to sell their home in exchange for Anthropic shares.

"The demand outstrips the supply in Anthropic so much that it's rare to get a trade done because no one's selling," said Anderson. "If I could close everything I have in Anthropic in terms of demand, I would not be talking to you. I'd be on a beach right now."

Renewed interest in OpenAI

While Anthropic still commands the majority of investor interest—drawing five buyers for every two seeking OpenAI shares—OpenAI has seen a significant surge in momentum in recent weeks.

The enthusiasm is largely driven by the public rollout of OpenAI's powerful GPT-5.6 model series, which includes its new flagship model, "Sol," and the cost-effective "Terra."

"A month ago, we were seeing limited demand for OpenAI," he said. "We're still seeing breakneck demand for Anthropic, but now you're seeing OpenAI get bid on a lot more often."

Martin says he has always tried to follow the company's rules on secondary transactions carefully, but he has become more vigilant lately as Anthropic has intensified its scrutiny. He says he will only participate in "first-layer" SPVs, where the identity of the share seller is known.

"We're trying to make sure the trade is actually there for our investors, versus what could happen, which is Anthropic gets involved in some of these multi-layer SVB trades and invalidates them," he said.

Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, which was an early backer of Anthropic, said he pays little attention to secondary market valuations, calling them a "noisy signal." Nonetheless, he understands the hype, based on the surging revenue numbers Anthropic shared before it entered into an SEC-mandated quiet period ahead of its IPO.

"Those numbers were crazy above what the plan was for the entire year," Murphy said. "So I guess they've earned somewhat the right for there to be quite a bit of interest in investing in the company."

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/aXiqepJ

Why used Xbox, iPhone, and Macbook sales are surging

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

Angie Cardona-Nelson has been recycling tech waste and selling refurbished laptops, smartphones, and tech accessories for nearly two decades. When she lists laptops on eBay, they typically sit for a few weeks before someone buys. But in recent weeks, they're selling in just hours at her full asking price, she says.

Costs of new tech devices are surging. In June, Apple announced it would raise prices on some Macs and iPads by 20 and 25%, respectively, making MacBook Pros jump by $300. The sticker shock followed Apple CEO Tim Cook's warning that a shortage of memory chips amid the feverish AI buildout push would make higher costs "unavoidable." Dell and Microsoft have hit the same pitfall; Microsoft's Surface PCs now cost as much as $500 more than they did two years ago, and Xboxes will go up by about $150 later this summer.

"Because new tech is becoming more expensive, now consumers are just looking for value," Cardona-Nelson says. Whereas shoppers used to be wary of scratches or cosmetic issues, they now want something affordable that works. "We are experiencing a fundamental shift on mindset for refurbishing."

But there's a cure to the sticker shock: a growing interest in secondhand tech devices. A poll of 2,600 US adults commissioned by CNET and conducted by YouGov found that nearly half said they had considered buying a secondhand tech product in the past year. Millennials and Gen Z were more likely to say they were open to a used tech device than older respondents.

The more costs from the AI race get pushed onto consumers, the trendier secondhand tech becomes.

"This is an unintentional advertising campaign for us," says Lauren Benton, refurbished tech platform Back Market's US general manager. "When Apple announces" a price hike, she says, "we immediately see the impact." The day following Apple's announcement, MacBook sales on Back Market jumped by 62% compared to the previous week, Benton says, noting that the purchases were "overindexed on new customers." Back Market has seen sales leap when prices for new devices rise in the past — including when President Donald Trump announced new tariffs last year — but nothing like this.

We are experiencing a fundamental shift on mindset for refurbishing.

Phones have long dominated the tech resale marketplace, but at PayMore, which buys, trades, and sells secondhand electronics in brick and mortar stores, demand for computers and computer parts has jumped by 30% in the past three-to-six months, says Erik Helgesen, the company's president. "Consumers are becoming much more educated," Helgesen says. They're researching specific capabilities of laptops, and finding secondhand options.

Back-to-school shopping could be driving the sales this summer, but Benton says the spike shows more customers willing to consider owning a secondhand device. "When you start to think about: What do I really need?" Benton says. "Do I really need these features? No." More people are finding they can "still be able to get great tech, access all the AI up in the web, and really not feel any difference."

Tech companies haven't been wowing people with their latest product launches. New iPhones, like the 15 and beyond, offer Apple Intelligence, but as more people shun AI, it's not an upgrade all shoppers see as worth the cost. Marketing intelligence firm International Data Corporation forecast that used smartphone shipments would grow 3.2% year-over-year in 2025, but anticipated that new smartphones would only grow by 1% between 2025 and 2026. Data from Counterpoint Research shows that pre-owned smartphone sales grew 4% in 2024, 3% in 2025, and preliminary numbers for the first half of 2026 show a 13% spike in sales, while new smartphone shipments are forecast to drop by 12% this year. The firm says these jumps are driven by rising prices, but also by shrinkflation — the device capabilities look too similar to older ones to merit a true upgrade to a new device for many customers.

About a quarter of Americans now use AI chatbots daily, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Half still say they don't use them at all. People surveyed were also more likely to say AI will have a negative impact on society and on their personal lives over the next 20 years. Gen Z and Millennials were more likely than people 50 and older to express negative feelings.

Given that anxiety, it's not surprising then that younger people are driving the secondhand tech market growth and looking to recreate simpler, more analog times. Luddite nostalgia is also rising. Searches for iPods on eBay were up 20% year-over-year in 2025, with iPod Nanos released in 2007 seeing a 60% jump in price between 2023 and 2025. The number of iPod shuffles for sale increased by nearly 30%, and people also searched more for Walkmans. Anti-Big Tech organizers held an eight day, phone-free festival in New York City last week, calling it the "Summer of Ludd" and encouraging people to rethink their relationship with tech. Back Market has plastered billboards and subway cars in ads compelling people to "downgrade now," highlighting the lure of devices that cost less and do enough, even if they don't have the latest features.

The full effect of the recent price hikes will play out over the coming months. But many shoppers are already deciding that what's old is new-enough again for them.

---

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/X203Lp8

It's time to revise Jeff Bezos' famous '2-pizza rule' for the AI era, Cursor field CTO says

Cursor's David Pan wrote that two pizzas — the amount advised by Jeff Bezos — may be too much food to fill a team in the AI era.

Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

• Cursor field CTO David Pan wrote a eulogy to Jeff Bezos' "2-pizza rule" on X.
• Bezos initially proposed that a meeting should always be small enough to feed with two pizza pies.
• "In the AI era, two pizzas is too much pizza," Pan wrote.

In the "tiny team" era of AI, your meeting doesn't need as many pepperonis.

Jeff Bezos popularized the "two pizza rule," the idea that any Amazon meeting should remain small enough to be fed with two pies. The rule also influenced team sizes

These days, many workplace teams have gotten even smaller. David Pan, Cursor's field CTO, put it simply: "RIP to the two pizza team."

Pan wrote on X that Bezos created an "all-time great metaphor," one that shaped engineering for over twenty years.

"He was right about small teams," he wrote. "But in the AI era, two pizzas is too much pizza."

RIP to the two pizza team. Jeff Bezos gave us an all-time great metaphor: keep the team small enough to feed with two pizzas. It shaped how engineering orgs got built for 20+ years. He was right about small teams. Still is. But in the AI era, two pizzas is too much pizza.

— David Pan (@davep) July 6, 2026

In the comments, users debated what the new metaphor should be. One proposed the quarter-pizza team; another said it was the three-slice team.

Amazon writes that "ideally, this is a team of less than 10 people: smaller teams minimize lines of communication and decrease overhead of bureaucracy and decision-making."

"This allows two-pizza teams to spend more time focusing on their customers, and constantly experimenting and innovating on their behalf — the biggest priority of high-performing teams at Amazon," the company's website says.

Some still follow the rule. Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of dating app company Match Group, told Business Insider that he was a fan in March.

Pan knows the rule firsthand. Before Cursor, he worked at Amazon from 2011 to 2014 as an engineering manager, according to his LinkedIn.

There are also competing pressures on team sizes. Some managers want smaller teams, with fewer people doing more tasks. Others want bigger, flatter teams with fewer layers of management. Those wide teams may need more pizzas.

Of course, many users commented that they themselves could devour the pies — even on a shrunken team.

"I've learned that you all can eat a lot of pizza," Pan commented in the wake of his initial post.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/RIr0Pse

Private jets descend on Sun Valley's invite-only 'summer camp for billionaires'

Each year, private jets take over the Friedman Memorial Airport for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference kicks off on Tuesday as private jets touch down in the Idaho town.
• Known as the "summer camp for billionaires," the summit attracts hundreds of media and tech titans.
• AI and media consolidation will likely be the hot topics at the off-the-record Sun Valley gathering.

Billionaires and CEOs are sleeping off any lingering holiday weekend hangovers and boarding their private jets to camp.

The annual Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference begins on Tuesday in Sun Valley, Idaho, marking the start of an invite-only summit known as the "summer camp for billionaires."

Between 300 and 350 aircraft — more than four times the typical number — are expected to fly in and out of the Sun Valley Friedman Memorial Airport each day during the event, carrying wealthy personalities and powerful executives in the media and tech spaces.

Allen and Co.'s Sun Vally conference kicks off on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"While the airport experiences a significant increase in activity, the coordination and procedures that have been developed over the years make the operation a well-oiled machine," Tim Burke, the airport's director, told Business Insider.

"The airport can accommodate approximately 100 to 125 parked business jets before reaching full parking capacity," he added. "Once that capacity is reached, arriving aircraft may still drop off passengers but are then required to reposition to another airport for parking."

As of Monday evening, several jets had already arrived in the sleepy resort town, which has a population of fewer than 1,800 full-time residents. Most of the aircraft were linked to charter or fractional ownership operations such as NetJets, Flexjet, and Vista, popular choices given privacy concerns about jet tracking.

Expected guests this year include many of the usual suspects, such as Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos, Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook, Fox's Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.

With regulation and IPOs in the news, AI is likely to dominate the conversation once again. Google's Sundar Pichai and OpenAI's Sam Altman attended last year, and reports say Anthropic's Dario Amodei is on this year's guest list. Last year, AI was the "1,000-pound gorilla" in "every conversation, every meeting," Tim Armstrong, the CEO of Flowcode, previously told Business Insider. This year, don't be surprised if AI costs and ROI flavor the chatter.

Media consolidation will likely also be much discussed. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and his deputy Bari Weiss are expected to attend, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who is leading Ellison's latest prize. (Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, the co-CEOs of Netflix, which dropped its bid for WBD, will also likely be at the conference.)

The Sun Valley Lodge prepares for the upcoming Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 06, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Unlike Davos and similar summits, Sun Valley is entirely off the record. Conversations take place on the golf course and during hikes between titans wearing fleeces and jeans. That relaxed environment has helped cultivate many deals, such as Disney's acquisition of ABC and Comcast's of NBC Universal.

The event, which started more than four decades ago as a media conference and has expanded to include hundreds of participants from the corporate world, is organized by the boutique investment firm Allen & Company.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/Rrngidf

Where to invest $10,000 right now, according to 9 top Wall Street minds

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

• The stock market is fresh off a historically strong quarter.
• Investors now find themselves at a critical juncture, with many of 2026's big macro forces undergoing a shift.
• We asked nine investing pros how they would invest $10,000 right now.

The investing landscape looks completely different than it did a quarter ago.

The Federal Reserve has a new leader. A deescalation of Iran-war tensions has moderated formerly eye-popping oil prices. Within the AI trade, hyperscalers find themselves out of favor as traders pile into chipmakers.

These forces have put investors at a critical crossroads. It lines up perfectly with Business Insider's latest installment of "Where to Invest $10,000."

We spoke to nine investing pros to find out where they're seeing the best opportunities right now as markets deal with multiple competing storylines. If you have a chunk of money you're looking to invest, here's what they recommend:

Nelson Yu, head of equities at AllianceBernstein

Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images

Investing ideas: Power infrastructure, industrial automation, advanced manufacturing, and banks and financial services stocks

Nelson Yu, head of equities at AllianceBernstein, says the biggest problem in the market today is the need for capital. This has risen in importance as government spending soars, mega-IPOs come to market, and companies pour billions into AI infrastructure.

With that in mind, he says to put money to work in companies that are able to generate returns on invested capital that are higher than their cost of capital.

He pinpointed the four market themes above, which he says meet his criteria as "productivity enablers."

Focusing on these areas of the market also allows investors to diversify away from the mega-cap growth names that make up a large chunk of indexes like the S&P 500, he said.

Examples of funds that offer exposure to these trades include the iShares U.S. Power Infrastructure ETF (POWR), the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ), the iShares U.S. Manufacturing ETF, and the Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH).

David Wagner, CIO at Aptus

NYSE

Investing ideas: Hyperscalers and quality small-cap stocks

David Wagner, the CIO at Aptus, sees a higher-inflation environment ahead, and said owning risk assets like stocks will be the only way to yield positive returns.

One of his preferred areas of the market is the hyperscaler firms — like Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet — because of their high operating leverage. That means that because their costs are fixed, and because of their economies of scale, it doesn't cost them much to acquire new customers, supercharging their margins.

Second, he'd look to high-quality small-cap stocks, which have underperformed their low-quality counterparts.

The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) and the Invesco S&P SmallCap Quality ETF (XSHQ) offer exposure to these trades.

Todd Brighton, head of direct investment portfolio management at Franklin Templeton

: Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Investing ideas: Banks and financials stocks

Todd Brighton, the head of direct investment portfolio management at Franklin Templeton, says these areas are particularly appealing right now because of the booming IPO market.

"These mega IPOs that we've seen for SpaceX, likely at least two more over the coming months and the rest of the year — this is all massive fee-generating revenue for the banks," he said.

There's also increased demand from companies to issue debt as they fund AI capex, and heightened activity in the mergers-and-acquisitions market, he said, both of which boost the bottom lines for banks.

Funds like the Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KBWB) and the Roundhill Big Bank ETF (BIGB) track the performance of financial-firm indexes.

Tim Ayles, investment director at The Mather Group

NYSE

Investing ideas: International and emerging market stocks, and a managed futures strategy

Tim Ayles, investment director at The Mather Group, says historically high valuations for US stocks have him bracing for 10 years of tepid returns. His concerns echo the lost decade fears that have gathered momentum on Wall Street.

Ayles recommends going outside the US and buying international and emerging-market stocks, arguing that they're lower valuations offer more future upside.

He also says he'd allocate a portion to a managed-futures strategy, which is a hedge-fund-like strategy that involves trading derivatives of several assets to drive returns that are uncorrelated to the stock market.

Examples of funds offering exposure to these trades include the iShares MSCI ACWI ex US ETF (ACWX), the State Street SPDR Portfolio Emerging Markets ETF (SPEM), and the iMGP DBi Managed Futures Strategy ETF (DBMF).

David Krakauer, vice president of portfolio management at Mercer Advisors

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Investing ideas: High-quality bonds

David Krakauer — VP of portfolio management Mercer Advisors, which oversees $110 billion — thinks high-quality fixed income is the right play because of ongoing uncertainty and tight credit spreads.

When spreads are tight, bad news can quickly impact bond values, especially for riskier bonds. This makes quality bonds essential for a traditional 60/40 portfolio, he said.

Krakauer notes that while many investors think they're playing it safe with bonds, they often assume more risk because of exposure to private credit and high-yield bonds.

The right amount of risk will help you navigate the opportunities and risks of AI, as companies try to find the sweet spot of AI spending, he said.

A bond ETFs that offer exposure to this trade include Vanguard's Total Bond Mark ETF (BND).

Gene Golden, CIO of Cetera Advisors

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Investing ideas: Diversify equity exposure, shorten fixed-income duration, and add volatility hedges

Gene Golden — CIO of Cetera Financial Group, which oversees more than $260 billion — says his investment posture in this market is both "cautious and constructive."

In order to achieve diversification, Golden says investors should avoid chasing the highly concentrated AI trade and instead look at "high-quality" areas of the market, like healthcare and industrial stocks.

On the bond-market front, Golden says investors should focus on short-term fixed-income investments with newly appointed Kevin Warsh driving uncertainty.

iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY) and PGIM's Short-Duration Multi-Sector Bond ETF (PSDM) are two potential ways to get exposure to the trade.

Lastly, amid midterm elections, a shaky US-Iran ceasefire, and a weakening consumer weakening lower-income consumer spending all posing threats, Golden recommends liquid alternatives or volatility hedges with managed features. He says he likes products designed to "zig when the market zags," even if they may be more expensive.

Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist, Hightower Advisors

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Investing ideas: The "AI food chain" (data centers, cybersecurity, robots), housing, financial services, and quantum computing.

Stephanie Link — chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors, which oversees $324 billion — says to turn $10,000 into a mini-portfolio designed to invest in AI transformation while avoiding crowded mega-cap names.

First, she'd put half the money in the AI "food chain," which includes bets on picks-and-shovels firms, as well as cybersecurity and robotics.

Within the data center space, Link recommends Vertiv (VRT) and Dover (DOV), which manufacture heating and cooling components for data centers.

To play cybersecurity, Link says to buy Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and recommends Rockwell Automation (ROK) for robotics.

Second, Link says to put 25% in housing stocks, citing low prices and pent-up demand of millions of millennials looking to buy homes.

Third, she sees 15% as a proper allocation for financial services, given the recent surge in IPOs, dealmaking activity, and trading volume.

Lastly, Link says the remaining 10% should go towards quantum computing, a space where IBM is "the leader."

James McCann, senior economist at Edward Jones

Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images

Investing ideas: Emerging markets, international stocks, mid caps, industrials

James McCann, senior economist at Edward Jones, says to look outside mega-cap tech, and notes that EM equities have already been outperforming this year amid strong earnings.

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, one fund that offers exposure to EM companies, is up roughly 20% year to date.

McCann doesn't say to get out of tech entirely — just look overseas, as well as at mid-cap stocks and industrials, which offer exposure without directly buying.

He says industrials are actually his team's favorite sector call right now, citing a new cycle beginning amid higher oil prices and strengthening manufacturing activity.

One funds offering exposure to this area is the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI).

Jose Rasco, CIO at HSBC Wealth Management & Private Bank

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Investing ideas: Utilities, industrials, value stocks, US Treasurys

Rasco said he remains bullish on equities and would put most of the $10,000 into strategic areas of the stock market. He sees particular opportunity in utilities and in industrials, which stand to benefit from the AI buildout.

Rasco said he would also hunt for good deals in the market, pointing to how value stocks have started to pull ahead of growth stocks in recent months. The Vanguard Value Index Fund, one fund that offers exposure to those companies, is up 13% for the year, compared to the 6% year-to-date gain in the Vanguard Growth Index Fund.

Further, Rasco adds that he would also allocate a small position to US government bonds. Assuming that inflation cools and rates eventually come down, Treasurys could appreciate in value, which he said was an opportunity for investors.

Funds offering exposure to these areas include the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU), the Vanguard Industrials ETF (VIS), and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/OKbtNme

I've spent 20 years teaching people to communicate. Phone anxiety has never been worse.

Mary Jane Copps, a conversation coach known as "The Phone Lady," said anxiety around phone calls is prevalent among young professionals.

Mary Jane Copps

• Mary Jane Copps, a conversation coach, said phone call anxiety is prevalent among young workers.
• Copps said young people lack practice in handling uncertain, spontaneous dialogue.
• Copps said executives recognize the value of communication but often don't invest in training staff.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mary Jane Copps, a communication coach known as "The Phone Lady." Copps has spent two decades coaching people at the workplace on how to be better communicators. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been "The Phone Lady" for 20 years.

When I started my company, phone anxiety wasn't something my clients talked about. Companies hired me to help their teams have better conversations, and for the first 12 years, those conversations mostly happened over the phone.

About eight to 10 years ago, that changed.

Today, I coach people of every generation who struggle with real-time conversations. I see it most often among younger employees entering the workforce, and the issue is more complicated than it seems.

The hardest part is uncertainty

People's reasons for phone anxiety can be deeply personal.

I worked with one man who grew up in a family that struggled financially. Whenever the phone rang, his mother refused to answer because it was usually someone they owed money to. He learned early that answering the phone meant trouble.

That's something I hear over and over again. People aren't afraid of talking. They're afraid of not knowing what will happen after they say hello.

One of the biggest reasons we don't get practice handling uncertainty anymore is that our phones aren't really phones anymore — they're computers.

When you send a text or an email, you can think about it, edit it, and reply whenever you're ready. In a phone conversation, you have to improvise. You have to think on your feet. Once you've said something, you can't take it back.

Older generations developed that skill naturally because they grew up with a phone hanging on the kitchen wall, but the younger generation didn't.

With the rise of social media, we're kind of in silos. We're not all watching the same news program in the evening. We have less in common when we meet a stranger. That prevents us from having conversations.

So talking became a skill instead of something we assume everyone knows how to do.

The conversation gap

Every year, I survey executives about workplace communication.

This past year, 98% of senior executives told me that the ability to have real-time conversations is vital to business success. Only 11% believed their organizations were doing it effectively.

I call that the conversation gap.

I also found that many tech companies want employees with strong communication skills, but aren't interested in training them. Instead, they're hoping to hire people who already have those abilities.

That's a problem because communication is often dismissed as a "soft skill." The term actually comes from the military in the 1960s, where organizational skills, writing, and speaking were labeled "soft," while operating machinery was considered "hard."

Unfortunately, the label makes communication sound optional when it's actually essential.

Leaders set the tone. If executives don't model good conversations or encourage real-time communication, their teams won't either. Organizations need to make it clear that these skills matter and that employees will be supported if they need help developing them.

How to practice

The good news is that conversation is a skill, and skills can be learned.

Start with people you already know. Call your grandmother. Call your sister. If you're used to texting your friends, spend one weekend calling them instead. You might want to warn them first, so they actually answer.

When you're with friends, put your phone away. Focus on the conversation instead of constantly checking your screen.

Then start practicing small talk.

Many people dislike it, but when you begin a new job, attend a conference, or walk into a meeting, small talk is everywhere. Keep a few simple topics in your back pocket — vacations, movies, the weather — so you can practice having conversations without worrying about achieving a specific outcome.

One young salesperson I coached later told me he started using the techniques I'd taught at home with his wife. They began asking each other more open-ended questions over dinner, and he said it improved their marriage.

That's because conversation doesn't just make us better employees. It makes us better partners, friends, and family members.

I don't think we should point fingers at younger generations. Technology has changed all of us. We're overwhelmed, overscheduled, and constantly distracted. We even schedule phone calls with close friends and family because everyone is so busy.

If we want better relationships — at work and at home — we have to make time to practice talking to each other again.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ivLh9co

I've been a trucker for nearly 5 decades. AI made the job safer, but autonomous trucks still need to prove themselves.

Veteran truck driver Ingrid Brown said technology, from the cellphone to AI-powered dashcams, has made the job safer.

Motive

• Ingrid Brown has been a professional trucker for nearly 47 years.
• Brown said that the driver's job has evolved technologically to be safer over the years.
• She's not yet sold on autonomous trucks and wants to see the technology validated first.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ingrid Brown, a professional truck driver and operations manager at Blackjack Express LLC. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I first started truck driving, I only had a CB radio.

There was no telephone, no communications, and no technology for anybody to know where I parked at night.

Especially as a woman, I thought about things like whether I was parked in a safe place. If I didn't move my truck in the morning, how is somebody going to know whether something's happened to me?

Now, AI and other technology can tell me if there's a deer in front of me. It can tell me if one of my drivers is dozing off or daydreaming. It can remind me to pay attention to the road.

Technology has gotten to a point where I'm accepting of it. It can help prevent what could go wrong next.

Autonomous trucks are different. I'm open to the conversation. But until it can prove to me that there will not be any type of loss of life, I'm going to sit back and watch it.

Truck drivers were their own patrol

I'm from Boone, North Carolina, and started driving trucks in 1979.

My first truck was a '79 Diamond Reo. Once I got a taste of going to different places and experiencing different cultures, I fell in love with 80,000 pounds of iron. My haul has included cows, steel, produce, and dynamite. The last time I counted, I had 5.7 million safe driving miles.

Ingrid Brown by her truck in 2002.

Ingrid Brown

Back then, safety really depended on the person behind the wheel. It depended on how well you did pre-trips or safety inspections before you hit the road. It depended on how well you chose to drive, how well you understood the hours you should be running, and how many hours you actually physically can run to keep everything safe. You were your own patrol. You were your own self-discipline.

Of course, we had rules. For example, we followed designated hours of service. But that was partly on you. You logged your hours on paper. I can tell you that back then, I may have rewritten the life of a day.

We only had each other to rely on. That's how we learned this business. There was no technology to say it.

The phone changed my whole world of safety

The first piece of technology that really changed my job was the phone.

It was a connection to me. I would call to get directions. I would call to see if my appointment time was good.

If something went bad, that phone was there for me to call and say, "Hey, I've got this load on me. I'm in traffic. I'm going to be 30 minutes late." And the time saved was unreal.

I'm all about adapting. I was never a computer girl because I'm a '61 baby, but I wasn't letting myself fall behind.

My first resistance to technology was with Motive, a fleet technology company, back when it was still KeepTruckin. The company provides electronic logs, tracking, maintenance, driver coaching, and AI-powered dashcam systems.

At the time, I didn't want to be monitored. Nobody needs to know when I stopped to go to the bathroom. I didn't want someone telling me how to do my job.

Later on, I found it to be a good helpmate. It took a lot off me. For example, I didn't have to sit up during my breaks to do paperwork.

The camera system also protects drivers when things happen because it tells the true story.

That's the kind of technology I look for. I don't just want to know what went wrong before. I want something that's going to prevent something from going wrong next.

I'm still watching autonomous trucks

I've worked with some autonomous trucking companies because they've come to me as a sounding board to ask questions.

I have some questions too, before I can give my full opinion on autonomous trucks.

I'll say that there's a lot of unpredictability that truck drivers are accustomed to.

I can see a car half a mile or a mile in front of me, and I can watch it and predict what it might do. If he turns left, I'm going to slow down prior to that. If he turns right, I can move left way ahead of time.

I haven't been shown yet that an autonomous truck can do that before a situation is already in motion.

But I want to learn more. My experience with other technology made me realize I need to quit being closed-minded because I could be missing a lot.

In a world where autonomous trucking is validated, I could see them handling local hauls or short-run jobs. As far as the long hauls, I'll gladly stay behind them.

Also, I've been a trucker for almost 47 years. I've got employees who drive the trucks I run, and I still drive myself.

I wouldn't want to see people who have lived their lives and are giving their lives to the trucking industry go without a paycheck because somebody created something they think is bigger and better.

This is where I'm talking about the empathy, the thought, the concern, and the care. Why would you want to take people's jobs away from them?

Truckers don't need to go anywhere. They need the tools and the help, along with what they already have within themselves, to make sure every single person around them is as safe as they are.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/wjcLKC6