An important thing to understand intellectually, I think -- whether or not you can understand it in terms or your own experience -- is that this is actually rea

An important thing to understand intellectually, I think -- whether or not you can understand it in terms or your own experience -- is that this is actually really difficult for some people, for whatever reason. I understand your advice, intellectually, but when I am in the immediate circumstance, it can nonetheless be hard for me to go into and remain in "superficial" mode. It's not my natural form of communication; also, when it extends beyond just the greeting, it can become difficult and frustrating. I find it not very efficient nor productive towards actually understanding the other person or situation and reaching a useful mutual understanding, whether just at a social level or in the course of some specific problem solving. Again, this may not "make sense" to some reading my comment. But it is the way I and I think some others experience dealing with things such as "How are you?" and "(Very) Good/Great/Fine..." and "Well", of course... as evaluating to "Hey" or even [null expression]. The flipside is that the other party does genuinely communicate, we tend to be able to communicate a much greater understanding more quickly and with fewer errors and need for longer term follow-up and repetition. In my experience... People can sometimes be frustrated with the amount I communicate. Until they realize later that I actually though of and told them exactly what they needed to know to deal with a situation, and they didn't have to come back and ask me anything further -- nor correct a mistake caused by a lack of understanding. Over time, they tend to learn that if I am telling them something, it is probably for a good reason -- even if they don't see it, yet.