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@animeirl @Kirino @Moon @bot @zaitcev Oh, one more thing that’s very important and counterintuitive:

It doesn’t matter what the conversation is about.

That may sound crazy, but it’s true. Sure, you want to both have some knowledge of whatever the topic is, but that’s not what the limbic brain is evaluating while you talk. It’s looking for subjective things like: “Is this person attractive? Do I feel comfortable opening up, or do I feel guarded? Is this person making me feel self-conscious by not talking much or giving me a blank stare? Are we both being friendly, even if a bit awkward, or is it too cold and formal? Does this person remind me of people I’ve enjoyed talking with in the past? Is the time flying by, or does every moment feel like an eternity?”

So don’t sit there and try to come up with conversation topics. If you mesh, your brain will come up with the topics for you as you talk. The important thing is that you do mesh well, so that you both stay comfortable enough to talk freely instead of getting locked up in a fear-type response that prevents you from thinking clearly enough to keep the conversation going.