> Because often the small talk transforms within a couple of minutes or even seconds into something "Real" or "Unique" I used small talk to figure out if my pa

> Because often the small talk transforms within a couple of minutes or even seconds into something "Real" or "Unique" I used small talk to figure out if my passengers had something interesting that I'd be interested in knowing about. Standard Questions -> specific questions. > YMMV, but it's been my experience that small talk is a skill that you can exercise and has its own value, "The most important thing about learning to talk to strangers is practice. Taxi driving gave me lots of new people to talk to every day." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27835024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27835024 (submission: "The vital art of talking to strangers")