Last fall, our Denver book club mandated bullet points only, no full scripts. We found that when people came with pre-written essays, the conversation just bounced between monologues without real interaction. Switching to casual talking points let us actually react to each other's insights, like when we debated the morality in 'Americanah' and it got heated in the best way. Now I tell new members to just bring one open-ended question instead of a prepared case. It forces everyone to listen and build on the discussion live, which saved our club from dying out honestly.

Clicked skip intros mindlessly for years. Now I'm realizing it's training me to avoid any moment of pause.