I agree, and I certainly wasn't trying to promote the idea of striking up such conversations with someone you barely know just for the sake of personal developm

I agree, and I certainly wasn't trying to promote the idea of striking up such conversations with someone you barely know just for the sake of personal development. I've had far fewer such discussions with friends and coworkers, though I've had some. Mostly they have turned out OK, but I've been burned a few times too. And I didn't actively seek the conversations; rather, they always occur when something happens in a shared environment and usually later one of us makes a comment about it that leads to a discussion.