When someone lights up talking about something they love, put the phone down. You’re watching a person at their best.

Enthusiasm is the one moment you see a person without the armour on. Most of the day people are managing how they come across, and then something they love comes up and the managing stops. That is rarer than it sounds, and it is almost always going on while somebody nearby is half looking at a screen. Attention is the only thing that keeps it going.

When it happens this week, put the phone face down and ask a second question. Not a polite one, a real one about the part they got most excited about. People will talk for twenty minutes if you prove you are actually there.