Boffin bore
"Some very clever people aren't interesting. They might be whilst discussing his or her particular field but not on other matters. Being interesting involves interaction. It's what happens in the listener's mind that makes the listener interested. If the listener isn't interested then the speaker isn't interesting."
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Alternatives
"Alternatives are part of the basic 'richness' of interest. It lies in generating and examining alternatives. A feast of alternatives provides an excellent mental meal, the obvious is always rather dull. Acknowledge the logical, sensible and obvious path but then seek out alternatives."
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Clarify, list and summarise
"Being able to clarify and communicate something it in a simple way is part of the interest process. While 'richness' is an important in interest, 'confusion' isn't. Confused people may seem to be interested because there is a lot of discussion but the overall feeling is one of confusion and waste of time."
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Knowledge and stories
"It is possible to pick up a huge amount of information from newspapers and magazines. It is not so much the major stories that matter. It is the small, tucked-away paragraphs that are the most interesting. If you read between the lines you can extract much more interesting nuggets to put into your hoard."
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Alleys, avenues and interests
"Interest is more like exploring an old town than driving along a superhighway. Interest is not a matter from getting from A to B as quickly as you can. Interest is not a matter of ramming your opinion down people's throats. Interest is not a matter of preaching. Interest is mutual exploration of what is interesting."
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Possibilities
"Possibilities open up possibilities. This process of opening things up is the key to being interesting. Being dogmatic and always narrowing down to certainty is boring. Opening up possibilities is a matter of scanning within the mind."
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Concepts
"It is the blurry nature of the human brain that is so powerful and gives rise to concepts. Interest largely consists in moving on from one idea to another. Amongst the different mechanisms of flow and movement, concept extraction is one of the strongest. Without concepts we are stuck in detail."
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Attention-directing
"It might seem life would be awkward if we never asked questions but it would make little difference. A question is just a way of asking someone to direct their attention towards a particular matter. The main line of conversation may be boring so focus on one remark and use it to open up a new avenue of interest."
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Feelings
"Art, literature, drama and soap operas are all attempts to catch 'feelings'. Feeling is the fuel of interest. Without feeling there is boredom. It is the development of feeling that adds to interest. It is rather hard to see how someone who has no feelings could be interested in anything."
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Emotions
"Emotions do not play a strong part in 'interest' as they kill interplay, exploration and elaboration which is essential. However, one aspect of emotion which does contribute to interest is to do with shock, horror, voyeurism and prurience. People seem interested in the details of disasters, serial killings, torture, etc."
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