Someone once told me something along the lines of, “If you listen to someone close enough and long enough, they will be so interesting that you will hardly be able to stand them.”

This seemed like hyperbole at the time, but recently I’ve been finding this more and more. When I spend enough time listening to an individual, something they say just becomes unbearably interesting. It could be some way they see the world, a relationship dynamic, a childhood event, a random talent… the list is endless. Some fascinating story eventually gets uncovered and in that moment they seem like the most interesting person in the world.

This works best in one-on-one conversations, where you can dive into a person’s world and ask questions. In groups, where there are often competing interests, conversations float around the common denominator, such that personal, potentially vulnerable circumstances are often avoided.

When you begin a conversation with a person, and listen – really listen, like trying to climb into their skin, to understand them as they are, there is something fascinating to be found in everybody.