From: utzoo!decvax!cca!fortune!megatest!sun!gnu@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: Interfacing to the non-computer world
Article-I.D.: sun.128
Posted: Mon Oct 25 03:26:54 1982
Received: Thu Oct 28 02:28:35 1982
References: uwvax.634

It took me years to figure out how to do this.  The biggest hurdle was the
one I've heard other friends mention too..."What can I say?"  I got mad at
myself one moody night and decided I'd damn well make small talk like the
rest of the world, useless nonsense stuff, and see if it helpe

Well, I discovered that often if I really listened and they really listened,
it usually took about 10 sentences (5 by each person) to find a topic of
truly mutual interest.  Even I can deal with that if we end up talking about
something I care about.

I was reminded of this upon seeing the recent msg about not talking about
computers at parties.  I surprised myself at a party last weekend where I
only knew 2 out of 20 people:  I heard 3 guys going at it about computers in
the kitchen and totally ignored them to continue dancing and talking to
other interesting people.