Conversation Is Showing Off Your Toolkit

Conversation is not primarily about exchanging information but about showing off your 'backpack' of tools, knowledge, and connections that you can bring to bear on any topic — demonstrating to potential allies that whatever future problems arise, you'll have something useful. Evidence against the information theory: we don't track informational debts, we'd rather talk than listen, we don't prioritize the most valuable topics, and conversations drift slowly rather than jumping to important things.