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Posted by Looky1173 5 days ago

How to talk to anyone, and why you should(www.theguardian.com)
385 points | 181 commentspage 4
himata4113 4 hours ago|
I feel that there is a down-spiral to this. People who talk to me usually want something from me so I started avoiding people since I have the expectation that they want something form me which means that I also think I look like a weirdo whenever I try to talk to somebody so I stop talking to people.
thrownawaysz 4 hours ago||
or how to get labeled as a creep by every women

joke or not (actually not) but read some women spaces and it's obviously a lot of people, especially women, just want to be let alone. Don't start talking with random people unless they start talking to you and it's consensual, simple as that.

tbossanova 4 hours ago||
Yeah but if everyone follows that then nobody ever talks to anyone “random” ever. The key is to just not be creepy. Some little low stakes thing that can just end easily if they don’t want to chat. “Such a long wait for this bus. Should have brought a book.” If you get a brief response, fine, end of conversation. Otherwise, then you can chat.
latexr 3 hours ago|||
> or how to get labeled as a creep by every women

If you’re a man and go into it with the mindset of only talking to women, especially attractive ones, then of course that would get you labeled as a creep because it is creep behaviour. That’s not striking up a conversation with strangers, it’s hitting on women. You have to approach anyone equally. Address the attractive woman the same way you approach the old man on the bus stop.

jaapz 4 hours ago|||
> Don't start talking with random people unless they start talking to you

Nobody would talk with anybody if both sides thought like that

medi8r 4 hours ago|||
Common sense applies. If someone is on a run, dont bother them. If you are in a queue I think make a comment is OK if theh respond keep talking.
hresvelgr 4 hours ago||
It's only creepy if you are a creep.
fuzzfactor 2 hours ago||
That's exactly right, you've got to be an unmistakable gentleman, which is just the opposite.

As everybody knows that's still often not enough, but why shoot yourself in the foot when you're trying to put your best foot forward?

I'll never forget the day some sophisticated gentlemen came to my school and introduced one of their big hit songs that night.

How there's 5 little words so many single women love to hear, "Hey Girl, What's Your Name?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09w6_q0Chxk

If you look at the lyrics it is a bit straightforward for the 21st century, I think the best approach now is to compress it to only 4 words, "Hi, What's Your Name?".

Even that can be a bit much in the wrong situation, so it can be good to seek out the opposite type of situation :)

You might keep that on your mind but from there let things try to imply the rest of the lyrics, especially the part that goes "Can I Be Your Friend?"

judevector 2 hours ago||
This is an interesting piece; talking to people will also give you a better clarity to things than just keeping it to yourself
5o1ecist 5 hours ago||
Interesting. Not the content itself, but the intention behind it: Improvement of social cohesion.

Hmmmm.

People are compartmentalized into groups hating on each other. They're afraid of committing wrong-think and getting labelled, branded, attacked. They prioritize people who aren't there (online people, like you and myself) over those who are.

It's especially interesting from my perspective, because in Vienna we still have some sort of KaffeeHaus-Kultur. CoffeeHouse culture. You can sit there for hours, reading your book, with a coffee and it does not matter, unless the space is really needed.

It's very common to just chat with whoever runs the place at that moment, too. A sense of familiarity is part of the job. For regulars, like myself, the coffee house turns into a second living room:

We people there started talking to each other.

When I was a teenager, many years ago, I had a coffeehouse for table-soccer. It wasn't a club, or association. It was a coffeehouse with table soccer, with gatherings of players.

...

I guess my tangent meant to point at the need for both general, or specialized, "social hubs", where regularly appearing people silently agree to, eventually, getting talked to.

Not like a club. Clubs are too much commitment, causing resistance.

mannycalavera42 4 hours ago||
a table-soccer coffeehouse, now I know what I want to do in life :)
XorNot 4 hours ago||
You can't simplify it to "people want to hate each other".

The topical issues of today causing strife are not reconcilable when the division is "these are the people we're going to hate".

arcxi 2 hours ago||
The solution to social anxiety suggested in the article boils down to "just stop being anxious".

I'm glad for people who don't struggle with this, I just wish they would be more empathetic.

divan 4 hours ago||
Does it work in Scandinavian countries?
Telaneo 3 hours ago|
I can't imagine it would, at least not without some (a lot of) social lube. Even bars might prove hard, since a lot of people there will be the regulars and other fixed groups who probably aren't interested in making friends. If you could join the smokers for a fag that might work out, but that doesn't happen any more since you can't smoke outside public establishments (which is fair, but it does remove a potential social arena).

It's reasonably possible at events. Cars and Coffee works great, since everybody wants to talk about their car. I doubt it will work at the dentist, since nobody really wants to be there in the first place. Maybe if they're wearing a shirt or something you can compliment or ask about and then can use that as a springboard?

If you're the dictionary definition of an extrovert you can probably still make it work, but you'll really stand out, and you'll be rejected a lot.

mnewme 2 hours ago||
It is sad how so many tech people try to avoid every form of social contact and even try to build a society around it (just look at meta)
emmelaich 4 hours ago||
I've done some Uber driving. Chatting in a car is great because there's no awkwardness of whether to look at one another. I've met some really interesting people, from all backgrounds. I can recommend it if you have time to spare and want to chat with people.

Not everyone wants to talk but you can pick up on that pretty quickly.

sghiassy 3 hours ago||
Did anyone notice how the last paragraph links to a paid course on talking to strangers… paid advertising??
spzb 3 hours ago|
Mutually beneficial. The publication gets an article people might want to read and the author gets free publicity. Happens all the time.
ratsimihah 4 hours ago|
That’s what I loved about NYC, people were generally open-minded and easy to talk to, so I’d chat with tons of people spontaneously. Having moved back to France now, it generally feels harder and weirder, but I got used to it.
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