As a man that's gone through the process of fumbling what to say, to being able to talk to women without many issues. I've learnt something very important, and it's this.

Most people are shit at conversations. They do the usual boring small talk.

On a different yet related topic. I've dealt with both online and offline dating, talking from a guys view on this, the brutal fact is most women don't respond very well to open ended in depth questions.

I think that's more because it's down to the person, some people don't think too much about things, as others do. Finding people that do requires going through the boring small talk to get to the open ended questions.

I've asked women various open end questions in my life, her response is either one word answer, a short reply or nothing.

So stating a man should ask open ended questions, doesn't actually do shit, it certainly doesn't guarantee they'll answer open endedly that's for sure.

My suggestion is, stop giving a fuck and enjoy the conversation in that moment, no matter it's length or how mundane it seems and actually listen (don't just hear) It's about your energy and if you manage to leave them with a smile, even if it's a tiny one.

That's been my new philosophy so some years now. It apparently works for the most part.