Every friendship you have began with somebody absorbing the awkwardness of going first. One person said a name, made a comment about the weather or asked a dull question, and everything else came out of that. The moment is genuinely uncomfortable and it is also about four seconds long.

Do it once this week with somebody you see regularly and have never spoken to. A name and one ordinary question is the whole script. Most of the time it goes nowhere, and occasionally it changes your year.