The Four Levels of Social Entrapment
Conversation Zen Levels from lowest zen to highest:Level 1: The conversation does not involve talking about your job.  This is only acceptable in business network situations.  If you are not at a trade show, business event, in an interview or at work you shouldn't talk about work.  This is the most pathetic type of small talk, as it immediately puts you in a social class/stereotype bucket.Level 2: The conversation does not involve talking about where you live, or whether you are going to school and where.  Unless you are exactly the same age, you are not likely to gain any useful information from this, except to put people into a social class or stereotype bucket, which is detrimental to conversation.Level 3: The conversation does not involve talking about any topics that have to do with people or activities outside of the immediate first-hand knowledge of the individuals involved in the conversation.  E.g no talk about sports, celebrities, world politics, etc.  This kind of talk usually results in nothing positive that you haven't had 100 or more conversations about already and serves to bucketize,  not in so far as social class is concerned but in other aspects.  Sometimes the other person will have specialized knowledge about a topic, for instance you may have read the same book or may be into the same niche topic, and this is acceptable conversation for this zen level but usually conversation falls into overly mainstream categories that tend to categorize and stereotype.  It's really really hard to have a common niche interest unless you're at an event catering to that interest so best not to bother.Level 4: The conversation does not involve any conversation about anything taking place in the past or outside of the immediate physical area.  This only usually happen as part of a shared activity and may be difficult or impossible on a plane or similar circumstances where there is little in the way of shared experience in the immediate physical area.Figure out what Zen level you want to communicate with people at and then just don't talk unless you can achieve that zen level.  Ok I made that all up right in this comment box.  The main idea is to avoid any sort of conversation that would bucketize the other person into a particular social class or stereotype for as long as possible or bore them with uninteresting chatter in order to have any more fulfilling interaction.  What do you guys think?