READING

I was in high school when I first noticed that I got along better with certain people rather than others. It was easy to talk to some of my friends; in any conver- sation, we always found the right words and every- thing just flowed smoothly. There were never any conflicts, and we liked one another. With other peo- ple, however, everything just went wrong. What I said fell on deaf ears, and I couldn't understand why.

Why was speaking to some people so easy, while others were total blockheads? Since I was young, this certainly wasn't something that kept me awake at night. However, I still remember puzzling over why some conversations flowed naturally, while others didn't even start-no matter how I conducted myself. It was just incomprehensible. I began using different methods to test people. I tried to say the same things in similar contexts just to see what reaction I got. Sometimes it actually worked and an interesting discussion developed. On other occasions, nothing happened at all. People just stared at me as if I were from another planet, and sometimes it really felt that way.