I often do stop at “hello”. I also sometime use “what ho!” or other archaic/amusing variations. But most of the time some form of “howzit / how are you / how’s it going” is a lighweight conventional conversational handoff to let them know it’s their turn to speak.
In many conversations, a more direct/specific question would be offputting and unhelpful. It adds pressure to be clever or informative, and takes away options to remain brief and lightweight (“fine. you?”). I’d prefer most social contacts to start out with this negotiation—each participant has an opportunity to inject important/urgent topics, and only if both pass do you push harder for a non-urgent discussion topic.
Note, this is all rationalization, not rationality—I’ve had bad luck with trying to start conversations more quickly, and this is my reasoning for why that is. I’m sticking with simple, short, ambiguous/meaningless introductory phrases (mostly—there are LOTS of exceptions. Don’t be boring on an early date, for instance—your goal there is to seem interesting and find topics of mutual conversation quickly.
I often do stop at “hello”. I also sometime use “what ho!” or other archaic/amusing variations. But most of the time some form of “howzit / how are you / how’s it going” is a lighweight conventional conversational handoff to let them know it’s their turn to speak.
In many conversations, a more direct/specific question would be offputting and unhelpful. It adds pressure to be clever or informative, and takes away options to remain brief and lightweight (“fine. you?”). I’d prefer most social contacts to start out with this negotiation—each participant has an opportunity to inject important/urgent topics, and only if both pass do you push harder for a non-urgent discussion topic.
Note, this is all rationalization, not rationality—I’ve had bad luck with trying to start conversations more quickly, and this is my reasoning for why that is. I’m sticking with simple, short, ambiguous/meaningless introductory phrases (mostly—there are LOTS of exceptions. Don’t be boring on an early date, for instance—your goal there is to seem interesting and find topics of mutual conversation quickly.