The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
economist.com
The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
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Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#2Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#3Reading this from an airport boarding area coming back from a conference, and I couldn't agree more. I feel like my social skills of talking to strangers have atrophied during COVID, and now I'm trying my best to exercise those social muscles again. It really requires deliberate practice.
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#4The last time someone I didn't know tried to talk to me on public transport I moved to another seat.
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#5The last time someone I didn't know tried to talk to me on public transport I moved to another seat.
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Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#6The article mentions "Strangers on a Train" which I've never seen or read but I've had a number of really interesting encounters from train talk. It's a natural place to end up in a scenario where you could chat with someone for a decently long time if you both choose to do so. A takeaway I always remind myself is that you never know what's right next to you.
Last month someone asked me which track the train leaves from. I answered and that turned into chatting with someone from Lebanon visiting the US who was nearing the completion of their PhD in theoretical physics mixed with quantum computing. Out of no where a 90 minute conversation ensued around programming, life in different countries and a bunch of other assorted topics.
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#7I'm always surprised that so few people on planes talk to each other.
It is amazing how a talk to the person next to you on a plane can turn a boring, multiple hour long flight into a nice experience that feels way shorter.
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#8I sometimes overcompensate for anxiety by being chatty and over familiar, but since I’ve had kids it’s also behaviour that I think is important for them to see. It makes my day when I have a positive interaction with a stranger but I also want my kids to know people are mostly kind and interesting and it’s okay to feel confident around them.
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#9I really identify with this article.
I find the modern "autopilot" social life tends to put me in touch with much the same people. Whether that's through meeting similar friends of friends, similar socioeconomic people through work, or algorithmically-determined similar people through social media or dating apps.
I put a conscious effort to live in a large city and interact with the people around me every day, and sometimes I'm called weird for it. But I think it's weirder that we move around these cities and treat everyone as "strangers to be ignored" until the moment we meet up with our target social group, and suddenly everyone these is "someone interesting and worth talking to".
Re: The vital art of talking to strangers (2021)
#10The last time someone I didn't know tried to talk to me on public transport I moved to another seat.
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