Honestly, that's an awesome attitude to have, as people nowadays have a much shorter attention span (myself included!).

And yes, I agree: it's getting harder and harder to hold a deep conversation with someone on a technical topic, even in a professional setting. Or perhaps I'm just not looking correctly?

It is really hard to get people to open up about their interests. People with interests are so used to being shut down by other people "yeah that is interesting now let's talk more about me" that you need to slowly coax them out. The best way is to listen intently and ask probing questions to draw them out. Once they feel safe you will have some amazing conversations.

Just watch out for the bores that will just parrot whatever they heard on FOX/CNN last night.

The phase I like to remind myself is: "Be interested, not interesting."

Obviously, trying promoting such an idea to a culture that worships the selfie is foolish at best.

We can at least try :)

I am the same way. Sometimes, when I hear someone get excited/interested about something I know a lot about, I try and shut up and just listen to them talk about it. It is really a great experience.