I've improved a lot of aspects of myself in the last year, but I still have one huge stumbling block, and it doesn't only present itself when I'm one-on-one with a woman, either: When someone says something (or writes it in an online dating profile), I'm very bad at thinking of any riffs on it other than a mindless identification with the subject at hand. She's talking about something funny her dog did? Oh, I guess I'll talk about something funny my dog did once. This makes me seem very needy if I respond, or just silent and closed off if I don't. I go on /r/tinder and see some of the ways that guys riff on the tiniest details in girls' profiles, and it just astounds me. I feel like I'll just never have the skill.