4 . Meeting people is the first step to make friends. But how do you actually become friends with someone? Here are some useful tips.

1. Make small talk even if you don’t feel like it

Small talk can feel false and meaningless. But it does have a purpose. By making small talk, you show that you’re friendly and open to communicating. In that way, small talk helps you to make the first connection with potential new friends. If someone doesn’t make any small talk, we might assume that they don’t want to make friends with us, that they don’t like us, or that they’re in a bad mood.

2. Figure out what you might have in common

When you talk to someone new and realize that you have things in common, the conversation usually goes from stiff to fun and interesting. Therefore, make it a habit to find out if you have any mutual interests or something in common. You can do this by mentioning things that interest you and seeing how they react.

3. Don’t write people off until you know them

Don’t judge people too quickly. Try not to assume that they are shallow, boring, or that you have nothing to talk about. If everyone seems uninterested, it might be because you keep getting stuck in small talk. If you only make small talk, everyone sounds shallow.

4. Make people like being around you

When you try to make people like you, it will become easier for you to make friends. When you make sure that people like being around you, they will like you. If we are with someone with a positive experience, we like that person more.

5 . Have you ever been really hungry, but there wasn’t much to eat in your kitchen? Did you throw together a bunch of stuff you had on hand and were pleasantly surprised when it tasted good? You aren’t alone. Some of our favorite foods were created by accident. Here’s a sample menu of some familiar foods that never would have happened if someone hadn’t created them by mistake.

POTATO CHIPS

One of the world’s favorite snacks is the result of a complaint. In 1853, a man was eating dinner at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York. He ordered fried potatoes, a popular side dish. But when they came out of the kitchen, he didn’t think they were crispy enough. He sent them back to the kitchen, where Chef George Crum was so angry at having his cooking criticized that he sliced the potatoes really thin, put lots of salt on them, and fried them. Not only did the diner love them, but everyone else did, too. They soon became a specialty of the restaurant.

TOFU

Tofu, or bean curd, is made by curdling (使凝结) fresh soya milk, pressing it into a solid block, and then cooling it. Tofu was accidentally invented in China more than 2,000 years ago, when a cook added seaweed to soya milk, which made it curdle. This is the same process that is used for making cheese. Like cheese, tofu is a great example of how really messing up a recipe can create something unexpectedly good.

CHEESE PUFFS

Did you ever wonder who thought up cheese puffs? The company that invented them wasn’t even trying to make food for people. It was trying to make animal feed. In the 1930s, the Flakall Company of Wisconsin made animal food from small, flaked piece of grain. One day, an employee, Edward Wilson, watched workers pouring cornmeal (谷粉) into the flaking machine, wetting it to keep it from clogging (堵塞). Because the machine was very hot, the wet cornmeal came out of it in puffy ribbons that hardened when they hit the air. Wilson took some of the ribbons home, added oil and flavoring to them, and voila! Cheese puffs!