>>13539059Social skills can be trained like any other skill. I'm by no means a master at this, but I'm less shit at it than I used to be.
I'm an electrician, and I one of the first jobs I had was installing ADSL, phone and TV service in peoples homes, which forced me into small talk with loads of people every day, which I wasn't happy about. But I learned that small talk in peoples homes is playing on easy mode, because people love talking about themselves, and their homes tell you a lot about them. Do they have musical instruments, a movie collection, a gamer pc, lots of souvenirs, a classic car, an aquarium, a fancy espresso machine... anything can be a conversation starter. After a while, meeting and talking with all kinds of people became my favourite thing about the job.
But out in the real world it's harder, and your starting point will probably be your work or study, or maybe the weather or popular media. I know this sounds like super lame advice, but you really just have to practice it, and you will maybe embarrass yourself or feel like an idiot, but it won't be as bad as you think.
