23 February

Conversation usually reinforces the status games of our lives. You don’t want to say the wrong things, wrong being what violates the spoken and unspoken rules of what keeps your social groups together. The author here suggests violating some of those rules, to bring out more of the real people you’re with. This is what I’d call a more generalised flirting with people, being unexpected, rather than just being an ‘asshole’. Social media tries the total arsehole approach, and it only produces more team sports. Go beyond polite conversation, but with a twinkle in the eye rather than confrontation.