If you had to come up with one question, the answer to which would determine whether or not you could be friends with a person you’ve just met, what would it be? What would the right answer be?

“Have you ever been in Croatia?  If the answer is “yes and I liked it very much”, I don’t know if we would become friends but I know we would have something to talk about for a while.

The same would happen with other questions to find out if the other person coincides with some of my interests: Animals, Music, the Sea, the Nature… It would be a good way to establish a conversation.

“I’m bankrupted. Would you like to have some coffee and talk with me?” If the answer is yes and the person is sober it would be a good sign. But I don’t know what would happen. Probably would end badly. The premise is a lie and I should explain that I lied because all was a kind of litmus test. Not the best way to start a friendship.

I don’t believe in friendship with a total stranger on a one question basis. I prefer the traditional way to make friends.

Litmus, Litmus on the Wall.