Yes, I have found life-long friends at parties. Good enough to bare your soul, discuss intimate problems. > Wait, let me get this right. What exactly are you s

Yes, I have found life-long friends at parties. Good enough to bare your soul, discuss intimate problems. > Wait, let me get this right. What exactly are you saying is a skill one can learn? Meeting life-long friends at parties? Are you talking about manipulation? Exploitation? "How to win friends and influence people?" That took a dark turn. The skill is the ability to have worthwhile conversations with new people. That’s all. I don’t know what you put under the umbrella of “manipulation”, but if you look at the book “How to win friends and influence people”, you’ll see that the advice is pretty simple stuff like “listen to people”, “remember people’s names”, or “be sincere”. This stuff sounds all so basic and obvious when it’s written down, but if you observe people in the wild, you’ll see people who are good at talking with others, and people who make obvious mistakes, like talking about themselves too much, belittling people, or being fake. If you are good at the surface-level skills, people will get more comfortable around you and talk more honestly about more sensitive topics. The conversations get more interesting and from there you can develop the seeds of friendship.