[chadillac]

Social engineering uses this a lot. It's rare and catches people of guard when a stranger strikes up a conversation and positioning yourself as friendly and attentive about listening and putting the emphasis on the stranger and not yourself can really open a lot of doors. Compliments, reiterating the persons information but leaving it open ended allowing them room to elaborate, etc. People love talking about themselves and they love people that make it easy for them to do.

If you haven't already read Dale Carnigie's "How to win friends and influence people" that book literally changed the way I communicate with people.

[mathattack]

If you haven't already read Dale Carnigie's "How to win friends and influence people" that book literally changed the way I communicate with people.

This is such an under-rated classic. Everyone should read it. I don't know where it fits in the technical or business curriculum, but one less book on accounting/strategy/programming wouldn't hurt, and this book has a lot of power.

[afarrell]

You should also re-read it if you last read it several years ago. A lot of the things in it are habits and it is hard to pick up on several habits all at once.

[mathattack]

Very true. Hard to ingrain anything without review and practice.