A Small Talk Survival Guide for the Schmooze-Averse Nice weather we're having, isn't it? The Esquire guy offers tips for making small talk.

People say they don't like small talk. But what those people are saying is that they don't like people. They are--and I'm not using this word without some serious deliberation--talkists. Also, they are denying an essential truth about every great thing that has ever been done: Before you do it, you have to talk about it. And before you talk about it, you have to talk about something else. And what that is, is small talk.

Small talk is a not a glorious thing. But it is the gateway to a thing that is … also not glorious, but a lot more interesting: medium talk. Which is something.

But this is about small talk--at a party, at a networking event. Which we'll take in stages. The stages are 1, 2 and 3, and there's no telling how long each will last.