an astute observer, you’ll discover that your small-talking cohort is giving you a wealth of free information you can use to keep a conversation going.
Being an astute observer means you're taking note of each and every way you can find the information of the person. You can find wealth of information by asking open ended questions, by looking at his appearances, etc. Notice the talker behavior and talking patterns and it'd give you all the information you need to talk more and more.
