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7 Innocent Ways We Alienate Others During Conversation
He was a word dam ready to break.
I knew my voice was the only thing keeping his lips from exploding. As soon as I stopped talking a torrent of words would gush forth until his brain was empty.
At least he wasn’t interrupting. But he wasn’t listening either.
Have you ever spoken to someone that only waits for their chance to speak? They may throw in a “yeah…yeah” here and there to make it seem like they’re listening, but really they’re just thinking about what they want to say next.
Eventually, I stopped wanting to talk to this guy. Why would I want to talk to someone who is only interested in what they have to say?
This doesn’t mean he was a bad guy. He just had a habit in conversation that tended to alienate people.
Post-publish edit: A kind commenter Keira Fulton-Lees suggested the behavior above could be indicitive of autism. I wasn’t aware of that and I’ll be sure to give people who do this including the guy above a huge benefit of the doubt in that regard. Thanks, Keira!”
All of my career has hinged on effective communication and relationship-building. I’ve seen a few habits that can…
