The follow-up question is where the conversation actually starts. Anyone can ask the first one.

Anybody can ask how your weekend was. The first question is manners. The second one is interest, and people feel the difference immediately, because it proves you heard the answer rather than waiting through it. Most conversations stay shallow for no deeper reason than that nobody bothered with the second question.

Practice on somebody low stakes this week, a coworker on shift or whoever sits next to you in class. When they answer, ask about the detail they seemed most alive about. You will learn more in three minutes than in a whole term of small talk.