Since my tips to improve your writing in two minutes were so popular, I thought I’d share some similar tips to improve your next conversation. Following are the simplest tips I can give you to ask better questions, which will make your conversations more valuable to you and the people you engage with. Don’t ask yes/no questions. Open-ended questions generate more interesting responses because they unlock more information from people.

Let’s look at a sign of academic “laziness” that I believe is anything but: procrastination. People love to blame procrastinators for their behavior. Putting off work sure looks lazy, to an untrained eye. Even the people who are actively doing the procrastinating can mistake their behavior for laziness. You’re supposed to be doing something, and you’re not doing it — that’s a moral failure right? That means you’re weak-willed, unmotivated,