[nmcfarl]

I use this occasionally for social, not professional, purposes and it seems to work quite well.

It’s sometimes a bit tricky to think up a favor the right size for the state of your relationship, but still useful enough to be real. Fake favors don’t work (and are frankly just weird).

[justhw]

Can you give me an example of a fake favor?

[nmcfarl]

Asking for the loan of book you'd won't be reading.

Things like that read false, and mess things up. It needs to be something that actually helps you out, to give the right social signals.