I’ve noticed that people uphold a lot of social conventions about how conversations are supposed to work, and then they have to all get drunk in order to have interesting conversations, because those social conventions (like “don’t make non-sequiturs” or “don’t talk about impractical speculations”) make interesting conversations difficult.
So… pretend to be drunk? Invite a drunk into the conversation? Probably not very good advice. But it seems people want to get past small talk, but need an excuse for breaking with convention.
That is very true. Many people also seem to interpret the politeness rule of not talking too much about oneself in such a way that no hint about interesting topics ever gets picked up because giving your opinion on something, or relating experiences, is “talking too much about yourself” unless you were explicitly asked. The only solution I’ve is to simply avoid people who are frustrating like that.
I’ve noticed that people uphold a lot of social conventions about how conversations are supposed to work, and then they have to all get drunk in order to have interesting conversations, because those social conventions (like “don’t make non-sequiturs” or “don’t talk about impractical speculations”) make interesting conversations difficult.
So… pretend to be drunk? Invite a drunk into the conversation? Probably not very good advice. But it seems people want to get past small talk, but need an excuse for breaking with convention.
That is very true. Many people also seem to interpret the politeness rule of not talking too much about oneself in such a way that no hint about interesting topics ever gets picked up because giving your opinion on something, or relating experiences, is “talking too much about yourself” unless you were explicitly asked. The only solution I’ve is to simply avoid people who are frustrating like that.