The other night I went to an event and found the people I was talking to really boring. A friend suggested that when he has felt the same in the past, it was because he was boring himself, ha ha. Am I boring?
Conversation is a team sport, with a minimum of two players. A “boring” person can be characterized as someone who does not contribute interesting anecdotes or facts to a conversation, or asks no interesting questions. Like most team sports, a bad player can be “carried” to victory by sufficiently good team. So while it’s certainly possible that you were talking to boring people, a more actionable and probably more rewarding point of view to take is that you were being boring, and strive to learn techniques for making a conversation more engaging for you and your team.
Could you clarify whether you’re asking (1) “Is my experience at that event good evidence that I was boring?” or (2) “Am I being boring here on LW?” or (3) something else?
agree with drethelin. even if this were true temporarily there is a solution. if it were true permanently, the solution is to be less boring.
(either actually do more interesting things that you can talk about, or generate a list of interesting topics to talk about that you know interest you—then when you get in the situation; look up the list and ask about one of them. I.e. what do you think of effective altrusim? how far off is the singularity? etc.)
The other night I went to an event and found the people I was talking to really boring. A friend suggested that when he has felt the same in the past, it was because he was boring himself, ha ha. Am I boring?
Conversation is a team sport, with a minimum of two players. A “boring” person can be characterized as someone who does not contribute interesting anecdotes or facts to a conversation, or asks no interesting questions. Like most team sports, a bad player can be “carried” to victory by sufficiently good team. So while it’s certainly possible that you were talking to boring people, a more actionable and probably more rewarding point of view to take is that you were being boring, and strive to learn techniques for making a conversation more engaging for you and your team.
Could you clarify whether you’re asking (1) “Is my experience at that event good evidence that I was boring?” or (2) “Am I being boring here on LW?” or (3) something else?
agree with drethelin. even if this were true temporarily there is a solution. if it were true permanently, the solution is to be less boring.
(either actually do more interesting things that you can talk about, or generate a list of interesting topics to talk about that you know interest you—then when you get in the situation; look up the list and ask about one of them. I.e. what do you think of effective altrusim? how far off is the singularity? etc.)