How to (Mostly) Never Run Out of Things To Say.

Not everyone is great at communicating, even if they wish they could be. I hope my experiences can help change that, so that the next time we meet new people or find ourselves in a dry patch, we can get out of it, and have a more fufilling social life.

[terminatortthefearless]

Silence is not awkward, you make it awkward. If the other person feels awkward and you do not, then you should take a lead in the conversation. But no pressure. You are in the winning position if you do not treat silence as something awkward.

[DepthUnchecked]

“Do you mow the lawn” sounds like a euphemism

[amyisreallybored]

instructions unclear, asked the delivery driver how tall they were instead of taking my food

[oinkitysploink]

My personal favorite is “what is your favorite conversation topic?” It works every time and is on the nose so it’s funny lol

[lethalfreedom]

No joke. I asked her "what brands your microwave?" And she thought it was cute

[evan]

Most important is know when to leave the convo while it’s still good, don’t milk it too hard even if it’s good at first

[BenjiBO]

I loved the point about asking a random question when the converstaion is heading towards a potentially awkward direction. Could be useful for kickstarting a conversation with randoms as well to move it away from the driest of small talk

[freexfalling]

The problem I always have with the “just actively listen and ask a bunch of questions” advice (which is not bad advice at all) is that for the other person, the conversation will start to feel like an interview, as they’re being bombarded with questions. You have to be prepared to tell the other person things about yourself as well as being able to ask leading questions, which is something I somehow didn’t figure out until after I’d left university.

[LolDarrellLol]

The problem with this is that it is so energy draining. I can hold a good quality conversation for about an hour before I get completely drained and don’t even want to talk anymore no matter who it is.

[kingseekerbackup]

Talking genuinely drains the shit out of me. I have those burst social energy and then go completely silent after like an hour as I try to take a break after a conversation.

[IndexGD]

i never run out of things to say. (I usually never say anything to anyone 💀)

[someguycalledcerberus]

The real hard part is being genuinely interested.
I'm not even interested in my own day, let alone that of someone else!

[Kris]

Here's a fourth tip that works hand-in-hand with tip 1: at 2:08, you present a ton of questions based on their singular statement. You can't ask them all at once. Each may bring you down their own line of dialogue.

When a topic ends or turns dry, you can go back to some of these unasked questions from earlier in the conversation. Just because you didn't ask it in the moment doesn't mean it's gone forever.

Let's say you ask about their cut on the hand; the conversation goes from how they cut their hand, to you asking to see it, etc... and maybe you even start a new conversation about injuries you've both sustained in the past that lasts a while.

But once that line of conversation has run out, you can go back to the car. "Oh hey, by the way, what type of car were you working on when you cut your hand, anyway?" ... and start a new line of conversation from there.

I've heard someone refer to this as "threading." Each question you could've asked or comment you could've made is its own "thread" to be explored. You don't have to explore each, and many of them may be boring, but so long as it's not a conversation doomed from the start as explained in the video, you'll discover more and more "threads" as the conversation goes on.

[Goober_gobbler]

I always hit them with the “do you believe in aliens?” Hasn’t done me wrong before

[AlexLiYT]

An important note is to have a sensitivity to what the other person cares abt. And what they're tryna talk abt. If they're rlly distraught abt their cut hand, they're gonna feel unheard if you try and steer the convo towards cars.

It's better to prioritise who cares the most abt what they wanna talk abt + relevance. Sure you could be rlly passionate abt cars, but I don't think there's anyone passionate enough to excuse being rude. Cars can be talked abt anytime, whereas the cut on their hand is recent and therefore more relevant. If you asked them abt their hand rlly late in the convo or a few days later even, they're gonna be like "wow thanks for the consideration"

[jackcole]

"Don't water a dead plant" but what if I find that plant interesting what can I do?

[Ransa]

My personal favourite ice breaking conversation starter is “what’s your favourite soup?” And after they give an answer say “oh okay” or “ahh yes” or smtn, if they don’t ask you why you asked about their favourite soup, just randomly say “you can tell a lot about a person based on what soup they like”, this is sure to get them curious out of shear boredom, now when they ask “oh what does it say about me?” Then you have to just say “it means you like (the type of soup they said)” and depending on the person that hears this, this can have varying effects

[pandiem]

Being okay with not having anything to say has helped me the most over the years. Awkward silence isn't awkward unless someone makes it so. Chances are if I'm with another quiet person, they're the one feeling awkward while I'm just vibing out.

Not only that, but if you try to force conversation, chances are it'll just feel more awkward. Being risk avoidant isn't usually the answer to improvement, but it's certainly made me more comfortable with my personality and being around others.

[ASKAL_PT]

I feel like 50% of the people I meet drone on about themselves in every conversation we have. Its like damn I know everything about you and you barely know a thing about me. Everyone's so self centered I find myself "actively listening" to their entire life story and it makes me tweak tf out.

[lacethefirebender]

2:50
“To have more fun and interesting conversations I developed my personality using interests”

See, now there’s the problem