Meeting People Is Easy, but Hard
I once received advice on smalltalk that's been interestingly useful.<p>The advice was to ask questions could be answered with a number. Like "How long have you lived in New York?" or "How many siblings do you have?"<p>On the surface those don't seem great at stimulating conversation, but people seem to automatically expand on the number they give since they feel it deserves explanation.<p>I've used it several times when I've been set adrift at a cocktail party without a conversational thread to pull on.