Why? I like when strangers try to talk to me honestly

And how will you plan anything if you don't know the weather genius???

Most people who "hate small talk" in posts like this have either very specific ideas in their mind of what it means, such as annoying coworkers who talk about quilting or baseball loudly in the next cubicle, or are deeply sour, lonely, cynical shits who think they're god's gift to intellectualism and have never had a girlfriend in their life so they can't imagine what people talk about casually in private, and think that being in a relationship with someone needs to be like, always planning a heist over a map of the city sewer system or talking about geopolitics or lecturing their imaginary waifu about science facts.

Oh I get it, I understand better than most, it's why I make a pest of myself in these posts about the benefits of just talking to people.

It's fine if you don't like talking to strangers or making eye contact if you're fine with your present social life. I am usually ragging on people about this because we're also having some pretty serious issues with loneliness right now. And you don't get from lonely to less-lonely by avoiding the things that make you uncomfortable.

I was non-verbal for a period as a child, deeply introverted, only recently diagnosed as on the spectrum though, particularly because when I was a child there was no real understanding of autism, so when taken to a doctor they just X-rayed my brain. I learned to adapt/mask but it took a long time for me to push through social discomfort and I also thought myself like many of the people in these posts who seem absolutely spiteful against people who try to strike up conversations with strangers. Again, it's understandable if talking is uncomfortable for people, particularly if they are on the spectrum or have trauma, but we need to understand that social avoidance is an obstacle to overcome, not an identity to cherish.

Pushing through discomfort talking to people and actively making an effort to be open, to go ahead and babble nonsense, to stop being afraid of bothering people with my own autistic spiels or niche bullshit, I actually started to "get it" and understand how the game is played and from there only had strings of successes both personally and professionally. Meteoric at times.

It still took some effort, but took me until middle-age to unlock this skill-tree to even start trying to work on it, and I strongly feel like I could have had a much, much better life if I made that effort sooner, and if even one other person reading this sighs and says "Okay I'll try speaking up at the next meeting" then I've done some good because I know their lives will improve if they stick to it.