18d • General discussion
More knowledge = better conversations
Dale Carnegie writes in "How To Win Friends and Influence People" of former US president Theodore Roosevelt: "Whenever Roosevelt expected a visitor, he sat up late the night before, reading up on the subject in which he knew his guest was particularly interested."
Having deep knowledge of a subject let him speak and connect with people that were also interested in that subject. Because of this, he managed to charm and win over almost everyone that he spoke with.
A similar theme appears in the biography of Thomas Jefferson, another US president. "His powers of conversation were great, yet he always turned to subjects most familiar to those with whom he conversed, whether laborer, mechanic or other." And he was able to turn the conversation to subjects that interested the people to whom he was because he was extremely curious about everything. He understood a little bit about almost every subject: science, politics, agriculture, religion, law, etc.
These two former presidents had an enormous curiosity that led them to constantly acquire new knowledge. With such a wide range of knowledge, there was always something they could talk about with anyone.
So that's my point: Having a wide range of knowledge about the world facilitates conversations because it creates more avenues for connection, it creates hooks for people to latch onto when they speak with us. A narrow range of knowledge makes it harder to speak with people because you can only speak about a few things. A person who knows everything about chemistry and nothing about dancing will have a hard time speaking with someone who knows everything about dancing and nothing about chemistry.
I am basically arguing that if you want to be a great conversationalist like Jefferson or Roosevelt, you have to be knowledgeable. Acquiring such world-knowledge is certainly challenging, but it starts from simple curiosity. So I will try my best to learn and read as much as I can, to become knowledgeable about different subjects, because this will make it easier to form connections with people. Of course, I encourage you all to do the same.
Feel free to disagree with me! I'd love to know what y'all think. Do you guys have any methods for becoming more knowledgeable about the world?
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More knowledge = better conversations
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