I'm going to teach you the world's laziest superpower. It requires zero preparation, no special skills, and the intellectual effort of a particularly relaxed sloth. Ready?
Ask a second question.
That's it. That's the whole trick. You're welcome.
Here's what normally happens. Someone says they've been stressed. You say "that sucks." You ask what's going on. They say "work, mostly." You say "yeah, same." Conversation over. You've exchanged exactly zero meaningful information and both of you feel vaguely unsatisfied. Congratulations, you've had a Normal Human Interaction.
Now try this instead. They say "work, mostly." And instead of moving on, you do the unthinkable: you stay. You ask "what kind of busy?" Or "what's the bit that's actually getting to you?" Or even just "how long has that been going on?"
What you've just done is something so rare it's almost suspicious: you've signalled that you actually heard them. That their first answer contained something interesting enough to follow. That you're not just waiting for your turn to talk — you're actually curious about what they said.
Most people have literally never experienced this. The effect is almost comical. You can see the moment it lands. Their face changes. They pause. They think. And then what comes out is completely different from the rehearsed answer they gave you thirty seconds ago.
The first answer is always the press release. The polished version. The thing they've said to six other people this week. The second answer is the real one — the messier, less certain version they haven't figured out how to say yet. "Actually, I think it might be more than work. There's this other thing..." And now you're having a real conversation. Just like that.
The practice is embarrassingly simple: ask a question, let them finish talking (this is apparently the hard part for most humans), sit in the brief silence without panicking, and then ask one more question about whatever seemed most alive in what they just said.
Good second questions are open-ended. "What was that like?" "How do you feel about it?" "Does that bother you, or are you fine with it?" Bad second questions are ones you already know the answer to. Don't be a lawyer. Be curious.
You don't need to get to the bottom of anything. This isn't therapy (unless you're charging by the hour, in which case carry on). The point is just to signal: I'm here, I'm not rushing, what you said matters enough to explore.
People leave these conversations feeling heard in a way they can't quite name. And here's the selfish part — you'll feel it too. There's a specific quality to these exchanges that's different from normal socialising. Less performance. Less energy spent. More received. It's like the conversational equivalent of a nap: restorative while appearing to do nothing.
Two questions. That's all it takes to turn small talk into something real.
Most of us only ever ask one. Which means the bar is underground. Step over it.