The best advice I got when I was a young nerd is to talk about things I'm interested in that also appear to be interesting to the other person. Being able to al

The best advice I got when I was a young nerd is to talk about things I'm interested in that also appear to be interesting to the other person. Being able to always reset the social exchange to a common ground of interests gives you so much space and safety to develop the rest of the skills like listening and small talk. I also noticed that smiling is a bit of a cheatcode. When things go south sometimes just dropping a smile can quickly turn you from someone who appears to be mean spirited or weird to someone who simply didn't quite land the joke or a reference and is aware of it - which can make all the difference. Finally, it's important to remember that you need to develop social skills just like any other skills so there's no shame in taking advantage of social lubricants like recreational drugs (e.g. alcohol, weed) or shared activities!