> Last week, I wrote an answer about [friendship stages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_penetration_theory#Stages). Two of stages are relevant to this question: the orientation stage, characterized by small talk and cliches, and the exploratory affective stage, where people start expressing their views on e.g. politics and education. After having written that, I came to the realization that some of the problems I might encounter in interpersonal interactions may be caused by differences in expectations about these stages.