Small talk isn’t fake. It’s the front porch; you have to cross it to get inside the house.

Weather and weekend plans are not the conversation, they are the part where two people check whether it is safe to go further. Skipping it does not make you more real, it just means you knocked on the door and walked straight into someone’s kitchen. Everyone deep in your life started with something forgettable. The small stuff is the price of entry, and it is cheap.

Take the boring opener seriously for one week rather than enduring it. Ask one ordinary question and then a second about the answer.