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army1987 comments on How to always have interesting conversations - Less Wrong
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If someone only gives me one-word answers, that means that they do not want to talk to me (but are too polite to tell me to get lost), and if I choose to disregard that, I don't get to complain when I get labelled and treated as a creep.
It can also mean that they aren't very good at making conversation, or even that they're not sure if you're just being polite, and aren't interested in a longer answer. I often refrain from answering people's questions in detail if I think they're just asking to be polite.
So, substituting interesting statements for stock questions signals that you are actually interested in conversing, as well as giving the other person more possible points to take off from.
(Of course, if you make such statements and get one-word replies a few times, then of course this should be taken as a lack of interest in conversation at that time. But if you're just asking stock questions, then people who don't have "stock interesting answers" for those questions will have a harder time conversing with you... and may assume you're just being polite, rather than actually interested in their opinions or experiences.)
In which case, why would I want to make conversation with them? :-)
Good point, though there's a middle ground between answering with as few syllables as grammatically possible (what I usually do when I wish someone wasn't talking to me in the first place, but I don't want to be excessively impolite) and a long answer mentioning personal feelings and asking a question back.