I do look forward to being an older person because at a certain age I do feel society gives you carte blanche to talk to anybody.

I talk to everyone and anyone; it's really great actually. Been doing that all over the world for most of my life (50+). Most people enjoy it; many are lonely and I often end up at parties / dinners etc at complete strangers.

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.

WFH for half a year, I think I need to go out more and network more.

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.

I've had some great conversations with random strangers on public transport and in shops etc. Oddly I'm a complete introvert with quite bad social anxiety and avoid social events like work parties etc. But I like talking to strangers I'll never see again. I think it's partly because I'm not trying to make an impression and I'm not there just to socialise. So it's a bit crap for me that people are withdrawing and not engaging in random chit chat as much. It's so easy to be lonely these days.

Man, talking to strangers in random places just feels socially uncalibrated to me, like I'm being retarded. The first time I across that idea was in the form of "cold approach", the idea of trying to score a date from a woman you see while out and about.

I wonder if anyone who did this had to start from a baseline of feeling this is straight up weird (I'm pretty sure it is weird in my culture).

The most difficult thing is to break the ice.

Once this is done, everything feels easy. The trick is to have a rough idea of what you'll say and just take the plunge. And practice.

We all fear rejection. Once you get past that fear, you realise most people are reasonable human beings just like you.

If you're curious about the topic, I recommend the book Rejection Proof, by Jia Jiang.

This is an interesting piece; talking to people will also give you a better clarity to things than just keeping it to yourself