One long car ride with someone teaches you more about them than a year of hallway small talk.

Long stretches of time together produce a different kind of conversation. Hallway talk is all openings and no middle, while two hours in a car runs out of easy material and leaves you with the real stuff, partly because nobody can leave and nobody has to make eye contact. Duration does what frequency cannot. That is why a road trip changes a friendship.

Find a way to spend one long uninterrupted stretch with somebody this week: a drive, a walk, a slow errand. Leave your phone in your pocket and let the talk get past the easy part.