You could’ve been the most interesting person at lunch by spilling it. You chose to be trustworthy instead. Good trade.

Information is social currency, and there is always a moment where spending it would buy you the table’s attention. The exchange is real: you would be interesting for ten minutes. What it costs is the thing that takes years to build and cannot be repurchased at any price.

When you feel that pull, notice that it is a trade and not an accident. Have something else to offer the room, a question or a story of your own, so the pull has somewhere to go. Nobody will congratulate you for that trade, and it will still have been the right one.