Disruptive Empathy

Disruptive Empathy

Stepping-Aside-As-A-Service

What a half-second of small talk taught me about my own factory settings

Eric Near's avatar
Eric Near
Jul 07, 2026
∙ Paid

A few weeks ago I was at a business networking event, doing the thing you do after the formal part ends, which is stand near the coffee and make small talk with strangers while deciding whether your social battery has one more conversation in it. Mine did, as it turned out, and the conversation was a good one. I struck up a chat with a woman who had bui…

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