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    “How to talk to people.

    1. Listen.

    2. Look them in the eyes (I struggle here).

    3. Set your phone on silent & leave it face down on the table.

    4. Don’t make small talk (everyone knows it’s cold).

    5. Listen.

    6. Don’t agree just for the sake of agreeing.

    7. Don’t disagree just for the sake of disagreeing.

    8. Listen.

    9. Say something interesting.

    10. Leave them better than you found them.

    11. Listen.”

    Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 39)

      “A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.”

      Chuang Tzu, via Sunbeams (Page 64)

        “People organize their brains with conversation.  If they don’t have anyone to tell their story to, they lose their minds.  Like hoarders, they cannot unclutter themselves.  The input of the community is required for the integrity of the individual psyche.  To put it another way: It takes a village to organize a mind.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 250)

          “The people I listen to need to talk, because that’s how people think.  People need to think.  Otherwise they wander blindly into pits.  When people think, they simulate the world, and plan how to act in it.  If they do a good job of simulating, they can figure out what stupid things they shouldn’t do.  Then they can not do them.  Then they don’t have to suffer the consequences.  That’s the purpose of thinking.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 240)

            “The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

              “Talking and doing fight for the same resources.  Research shows that while goal visualization is important, after a certain point our mind begins to confuse it with actual progress.  The same goes for verbalization.  Even talking aloud to ourselves while we work through difficult problems has been shown to significantly decrease insight and breakthroughs.  After spending so much time thinking, explaining, and talking about a task, we start to feel that we’ve gotten closer to achieving it.  Or worse, when things get tough, we feel we can toss the whole project aside because we’ve given it our best try, although of course we haven’t.” ~ Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy