Talking to Strangers

Totally agree with this. Try to make small talk with someone every day. If they engage in conversation, continue talking until one person reaches the destination. You will be surprised by 1) how much you have in common and 2) what you can learn from them.

A bit drastic. Why not try to meet people in areas that you are interested in? Go to a meetup, I think people would talk to you because you are interested in listening to their problems.

I hear what you’re saying. However my experience (and suggestion) is the opposite. If one has trouble making small talk and networking a good trick is to get other people talking about themselves, their projects, their work. The best way to do that is to ask them questions. People in general like to talk about themselves.

The point is to not be some random person you’ve never seen before suddenly talking to you. You don’t start out talking to every person that walks through the door. First you have to establish yourself as “that person who’s always here on Tuesday at lunch”. You don’t do anything other than make eye contact and smile. If someone you see regularly seems friendly and has established a habit of smiling back or nodding when you do then make a point to talk to them if you find yourself standing in lin

I'm not particularly good in group settings, but here's a strategy I've found that works in most cases: give the person a complement, then ask them a question about themselves. It's important that the complement isn't about their appearance or something that might make them uncomfortable. And keep the question light.

If you are not feeling confident in approaching strangers to start conversations, you might be tempted to start every conversation with something like, “Hi. I don’t know anybody here and I was hoping to …”. It’s okay to be thinking that but skip over all those words as you speak and just say something like, “Hi! Are you enjoying the conference so far?” You will (usually) get an immediately warm and polite response. If you like the person, keep chatting. If it isn’t, wish them well and keep movin

You need to learn to enjoy small talk, it's the bridge to "large" talk, which is how you connect with people. Meeting people you can connect with is a numbers game! So if you can learn to enjoy small talk (and get better at it), this would probably help a lot.

Learn how to have a conversation with someone you just met.

Start by greeting people that you pass by often. Don't be shy to engage in small talk. Trust society and it gets better over time.

Any tips? I can usually carry a conversation but hard to think of a reason to start one