How to Make the Most of Small Talk

It seems like we spend less and less time with friends and loved ones as we grow older. We look for ways to fight this trend and become a social outlier. Full show notes This week’s episode is sponsored by: Skillshare: With thousands of courses in a wide range of different skills, Skillshare can help you take things to the next level. If you're one of the first 500 to use this link, you can also get started with 2 free months of unlimited learning (including Thomas' new Habit-Building class!) at Skillshare.com/geek. Dashlane can help make your online experience safer and more convenient with password management, VPN, form filling and more. Head over to Dashlane.com/collegeinfogeek for a free 30-day trial, and once you've fallen in love you can use the code 'collegeinfogeek' for 10% off your subscription. Things mentioned in this episode: Good to Great, by James Collins How to Go from Merely Good to Truly Great (Ep. 178) If This Isn't Nice, What Is?, by Kurt Vonnegut Ali Abdaal's Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X course on Skillshare Jordy Vandeput's Video Editing with Premiere Pro course on Skillshare Thomas’ Productivity course on Skillshare Thomas’ Habit-Building course on Skillshare Meetup (iOS | Android) Listen Money Matters Making Friends And Connections As An Introvert (Ep. 47) How to Build Closer Friendships How to Meet New People - 6 Tips for Making More Friends The Story of Starbucks, by John Simmons Want more cool stuff? You can find all sorts of great tools at my Resources page. You can also get a free copy of my book, 10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less), by staying up to date with the College Info Geek newsletter. Timestamps: 0:00:40 - How much time you spend with people as you age 0:10:10 - Taking steps to being more social 0:15:25 - Volunteering 0:23:09 - Sponsor: Dashlane (Managing your passwords) 0:25:15 - Sponsor: Skillshare (Learning new skills) 0:28:42 - Going to meetups and making yourself available 0:45:53 - Thoughts on family 0:53:07 - Trello system for maintaining relationships 0:58:30 - Doing scary stuff 1:04:22 - Going from small talk to interesting conversations 1:07:20 - Regaining that feeling of social ambience 1:21:43 - Being alone without being lonely 1:25:49 - Conclusion If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! It's easy, you'll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show gain exposure :) You can also leave a review! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.