Re:Ask HN: What topic instantly will spark a great conversat...
by jasonkester on Tuesday January 22, 2019 @03:13AM
(#18966788)
Travel.
It's the easiest way to strike up a conversation while on the road. "Where are you from?" or "How long are you out for?" is all you need, and is a perfectly acceptable thing to ask anybody you see standing by themselves overseas. Everybody feels a bit lonely and out-of-place in Bangkok or wherever, so they're usually happy for a chance to talk.
It works nicely for parties and casual conversations as well. "Got any big trips lined up?" will generally restart a dying conversation that has already used up the weather and other boring topics.
Sadly, "conversations among strangers" is a dying art. It used to be that when you were alone with 10 minutes to kill, the most productive thing you could find to pass the time was to smoke a cigarette or just stand there thinking. Now you pull out your phone and try to look busy. It's impolite to interrupt a busy person on their phone, whereas in certain circumstances it's almost polite to interrupt a person leaning on a post staring off to space. So my theory is that fewer people are meeting each other in real life these days.
It's the easiest way to strike up a conversation while on the road. "Where are you from?" or "How long are you out for?" is all you need, and is a perfectly acceptable thing to ask anybody you see standing by themselves overseas. Everybody feels a bit lonely and out-of-place in Bangkok or wherever, so they're usually happy for a chance to talk.
It works nicely for parties and casual conversations as well. "Got any big trips lined up?" will generally restart a dying conversation that has already used up the weather and other boring topics.
Sadly, "conversations among strangers" is a dying art. It used to be that when you were alone with 10 minutes to kill, the most productive thing you could find to pass the time was to smoke a cigarette or just stand there thinking. Now you pull out your phone and try to look busy. It's impolite to interrupt a busy person on their phone, whereas in certain circumstances it's almost polite to interrupt a person leaning on a post staring off to space. So my theory is that fewer people are meeting each other in real life these days.