[heraclius1729]

Can you be a little more specific about what you consider gross? I only read the article because of your comment; I got curious. Most of it just seems like common courtesy, and a few fairly standard body language tricks.

[__loam]

The AI imagery

The checklist

The idea that everyone in the party is quietly evaluating you and making up a story in their head

The forced body language

The weird conversation starters

Like all this stuff is forced and artificial and the goal is you're trying to build a relationship with someone for the implicit purpose of getting something out of them. None of this is genuine social connection, it's just a performance to try and increase your own status.

[Quanternion]

This reminds me of part of some novel I read a while ago. Something about a newly turned noble learning how to act like a noble. Organizing parties and knowing who exactly to invite and how to receive them, having his butler tell him a few important things about a person before going to talk to them, when and how to ask ladies for a dance, conforming to certain unspoken rules of etiquette, and the list goes on. I almost felt the exhaustion just from reading.

All just superficial interactions to keep up the social standing, presenting yourself as special and useful to associate with while not actually making any meaningful connection with anyone. That's the feeling I got from reading that scene as well as whenever I hear about this networking stuff.