Video by janamitterer

Let me guess, you hate small talk. Because yeah, me too. But I refuse to not learn something that has the potential to make my life genuinely easier. So here are three moves that make small talk easy. Number one, comment and then question. Don't just fire questions. It's not an interview. Make a small observation and then ask something open. I don't care. You can comment

on literally everything. On the weather, on the bus, on the color of the fucking car. And I'm going to give you an example because I'm an example person. Let's say the weather is just doing whatever it wants this week. Then you can comment on that and then you can ask something like, is this weather messing with your plans of the week too? Or whatever else comes up in your mind

because there are so many options. Number two, follow the energy. When they answer, don't just jump to your next planned question. Grab one detail and go a layer deeper. You need to follow a thread, not a script. For example, if someone tells you, oh, I'm originally from Ohio, you can ask, oh, what brought you here? Number three, have go-to threads ready. Keep two or three categories

in your back pocket, not lines, categories, the environment, the day, something about yourself. so if it goes quiet, you have somewhere to go. That's it. Comment, follow, back up. Those are the three moves you can do. Let me know if you want a part two.