"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something." -Plato, Ancient Greek Philosopher, Plato books//

Small talk is not my strong suit. It's very difficult for me to engage in idle chatter about the weather or work, although I can do it to a certain extent about sports. I don't meet many people who are content with sitting back and saying nothing as Plato suggests. In fact, most people seem to think doing so is slightly rude, and failure to engage in "small talking" means that you think you're better than everyone around you. Unlike Plato purports, most people don't associate silence with wisdom. Knowing this to be the case, I have forced myself to ask a series of questions to get the conversation started when meeting someone new. 1. What do you do for a living? 2. Do you live in the area? 3. Are you originally from there? Usually, these questions are enough to get people talking to me for twenty minutes or more. All the while, I'm hoping they will open the door to some more interesting conversation, such as politics, philosophy, the environment or something to do with the arts. More often than not, I'm pleasantly surprised with how the conversation goes, but every once in a while, I get some fool talking out of both sides of his mouth or the other orifice on his back side. Plato probably didn't enjoy small talk of any kind, but for most people "small talking" is the only way to get smarter conversations started.