Why don't you talk to them more?
Because they are too busy.
(Yeah, I know, there are more questions to ask. Such as "could I help that person, so that they are less busy, and as a side effect our cooperation would provide me more opportunities to talk to them?")
Motivation
-Appendix: Hamming Questions, from the CFAR Handbook
This post starts off by asking an analogous pair of questions:
and subsequently
(If you did not already pause to ask yourself those questions and come up with some sort of answer, I recommend you take a minute or so to do it.)
I want to become stronger. I want to not only absorb the powers of those around me, but go on to surpass them. I do this because I have something to protect, and right now it's looking like it'll require a truly extraordinary effort in order to protect the things I care about in the medium and long term. So here's one of the things I do about it.
1. Find the most skilled/generally capable/cognitively powerful person you know.
If there are more than one of them who seem obviously highly skilled, then choose all of them. This process is easier if the people chosen in this step are at least a level above you, but this is not strictly necessary. People have non-overlapping skillsets, so a vast majority of pairs of people have at least something to absorb from each other. Still, we're trying to level up quickly, which means picking the person who you can absorb the most power from.
2. Talk to them more. Absorb their powers.
This can be as simple as "you seem competent, how did you do X thing/come up with X idea?" This can feel weird and induce some anxiety since it goes against the social grain in many circles, but it is generally flattering enough to the recipient that it outweighs those considerations. In rationalist circles, this is a perfectly normal-seeming question, of course, so no need to worry if you're in such a circle. Other ideas for questions:
Latch onto them. Ask them as many questions as you can manage without bothering them. Notice your confusion about why they are the way they are, and then seek to destroy your confusion.
Then internalize it. Understand what it's like to have the powers that they have, and then use them yourself. Don't try to become exactly them; become a levelled up version of you.
3. Recurse
Ask them the first modified Hamming Question at the beginning of this post:
and subsequently
You can also do this by finding your way into the spaces that the person you're absorbing power from hangs out in, and then find new people from there. Both are solid strategies that have caused me to meet very informative new people to absorb power from.