conversation
Put another way, if you want to have a successful conversation with someone, you don’t have to ask them about their worst memories or how they prepare for telephone calls. You just have to ask them to describe how they feel about their life—rather than the facts of their life—and then ask lots of follow-ups.
Charles Duhigg • Supercommunicators
If something has gone sideways in your friendship, ask your friend to tell you what they’re feeling and thinking. Then be quiet and listen. Resist the urge to interrupt, defend, or answer back. Let them get out everything they need to say. After you clarify that you’ve understood them correctly by repeating back what you heard, ask, “Is it okay if
... See moreKat Vellos • We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships
So if you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.
Dale Carnegie • How To Win Friends and Influence People
- what’s a topic you could talk about for hours?
- would you be friends with yourself?
- what are small things that aren’t so small to you?
- would your younger self be proud of yourself now?
- what are your strengths as a friend?
- what makes you want to be a better person?
- what’s your favorite childhood memory?
- what’s a hard pill of yours to swallow at the m
ella • the art of asking - by ella - letters in bloom
When done well, both giving and taking create what psychologists call affordances : features of the environment that allow you to do something. Physical affordances are things like stairs and handles and benches. Conversational affordances are things like digressions and confessions and bold claims that beg for a rejoinder. Talking to another perso... See more
Adam Mastroianni • Good conversations have lots of doorknobs Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?
3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?
4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?
5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
6. If you were able to live to th
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