You’re confusing social interactions with abstract interpretive exercises. In social life, what someone presents to another person, and how successfully they d

You’re confusing social interactions with abstract interpretive exercises. In social life, what someone presents to another person, and how successfully they do it, matters. Not just intention. In this case, you’re defending just sitting silently and expecting the other party to keep asking you questions. It doesn’t matter if you want to show interest and are failing - social interactions don’t work that way. If you’re not doing your part, people get bored or confused. Like if I wanted to show I agreed with you by giving you a thumbs down. Or yawned even though I thought you were interesting, and didn’t explain it’s because I’m tired. Intentions matter, yes. But they’re not the only thing that matters. And what’s happened here is a failure to follow commonly held standards of social interaction in a given cultural context. If you’re saying you shouldn’t _blame_ the person not asking questions, then sure, I agree. It’s not necessarily their fault. But it’s still reasonable to find their behaviour lacking and go talk to someone else. (And yes, fair point about interruptions. More complex case, and can signal engagement. Depends how it’s done.)