How to make smalltalk?
pg: I was about to capitalize the S because I thought this was going to be about how to write a Smalltalk implementation.As for your actual question, sometimes the conversation dies because the other person wants it to, and you'd seem pushy if you tried to force it to continue.  But in borderline cases I recommend asking the other person about their feelings about relevant things.I was a peer conselor in college.  They taught us something called Rogerian Therapy, which consists of adding as little as possible of your own spin to the conversation, just asking questions, particularly about how the other person feels.  You can't be too obvious, or it gets annoying.  But if you're subtle about it, people just open up.