Thanks for the interesting conversation, everyone! I really do find it fascinating, and kind of wish we were all together in person, so I could ask you all a million follow-up questions!

BirdDancer - Seeing the humor in life seems like an awesome thing to be able to do! And, you're right about the wording of the second question... I should have said "others" - sorry for that. Is there something you feel like you don't get, that others seem to naturally understand or think is obvious?

MsLady - Being able to read all those subtle cues seems like it would be such a big help, but I totally get why it could be confusing at times too. I've had the experience where... you just know something doesn't add up, but you don't know what it is or why, and it's so unsettling. (In my case, it was someone who had called a bunch of times... when I called back, they said they just wanted to chat... but they really were trying to ask for money. Once they finally asked, I had the context for all the other weirdness that led up to that!)

It seems like small talk and social skills is a tough area for a lot of us! (Me too!)

Ford Puma - Ah, I understand... sorry for the unnecessary advice! I actually love really good, deep discussions of complicated issues too... and wish there were more people out there who enjoyed that kind of thing. Thanks for clarifying!

Motts - Wow! I hadn't realized (though it makes sense) how much the stuff we're doing to our lawns affects the local wildlife, thanks for sharing that.

What was really interesting to me about your response is, you started with something very concrete and "observation" based (seeing and identifying birds) but tied it into your values so nicely! It's interesting to see how those things link up for you, and is a good example of why they do all the followup questions in typing. The people from the class were making the point that you can't just take an answer at face value, you need to let the person talk a little about "why" - why they enjoy it, what they get from it. Because one hobby or skill could actually represent different functions for different people.

I wish I had good advice for the social stuff (not that you were asking, sorry!) - it's really hard, and it seems to only get harder. It was something that I kind of wanted to work on this year, but the pandemic got in the way.

Mountaindewed - Very cool that you've got that kind of radar to detect fakeness! I think I may not be great at that, as I'm sometimes really surprised by people (i.e. I didn't realize that they weren't being upfront/genuine, so when they show their true self... I'm not really prepared!) Is there a particular type of humor that you miss more often? Or is it just in general?

Thanks everyone!