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Comment by sAbakumoff | Hacker News Reader

more interested question is why do you need small talk at all?

Some northern Scandinavian people and especially the Finns do without it.

I tried having comfortable silences with my coworkers. Some like it, some just go insane. It kind of depends on the person - maybe some people never learn to appreciate the silence.

I've been to conferences in Finland and there's as much smalltalk as there is anywhere else. Going to a conference and everyone just standing there silently would be a waste of everyone's time and money.

Okay. By having done away with it I guess I really meant that they are not doing it pointlessly often, when it could just as well be quiet.

Such as at the coffee (fika) break. It might be okay to just be silent. All you are going to talk about is rather obvious in either case.

For socializing. Depends a bit on the culture though, but in many that I'm familiar with this is seen as 'normal'.

let's say that I don't appreciate when a co-worker asks me every Monday "how is your week-end?". First of all - why the f*ck do you care, secondly - mind your own weekend. But "social norms" kinda force me to answer "that was fine thank you" and then keep fingers crossed that he does not start ask about the details which does not happen a lot because people don't really care about anyone but themselves. I honestly don't comprehend why can't we start Monday with casual Hello and then get back to work and enjoy silence. But I am not normal I guess.

some people cant deal with silence

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