On Improving Interpersonal Skills:
It's important to actually LOOK at the person you are talking to, especially his/her face because around 70% of the actual communication is non-verbal. If you have a tech-oriented or academic personality you may be internally programmed listen at whats being said as "just information", missing most sub-communicated meanings like sarcasm, jokes, lead-ons, etc. Remember: the more emotional humans like to play a lot when they´re communicating and sub-communication is their idea of fun.