I haven't seen this discussed here and I'm curious how common this is.

I'm pretty binary when it comes to conversation; either I have "mouth diarrhea," as my girlfriend calls it, filled with enough back-and-forth conversational volleys of cultural/scientific references to qualify for banter in an episode of Archer, or I'm am utterly silent when talking to people. I've experienced times with foreigners being able to hold better conversations than I have with other Americans at times. I hold the opinion that people are either interested in learning things and developing skills and that the people who have that drive develop and learn so much over the years to make them interesting enough to exchange thoughts with, or they'd rather hold the status quo, work a menial job for menial pay and can't think past what they are spoon-fed on social networking sites or television.

Example of a conversation with a foreigner (Deadwood: Al's exchange with Wu), and either character could fit, but with legal content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QbEzCoTafU

I am an excellent public speaker, and I can keep a conversation going.

Most of the time I choose not to.



You learn a lot more being quiet. Those that know the least talk about it the most and all that.

Like how Trump would keep his mouth shut during the debates until it was time to open it.

Depends on the person. If they are talkative I find it very easy. If they aren't then I hate having to be the one always talking

Just found this: http://myweb.clemson.edu/~campber/peikovianarbitrary.pdf from page 53 in the pdf: