The Problem of How. (noun). The problem of how to initiate a conversion with a given stranger, in a way that feels situationally appropriate and comfortable for both parties. --- Not a single business in the average modern city has managed to offer a solution to this problem. Problem: To strike up a conversation with a stranger, you need a plausible reason. You can't just walk up to a stranger and say "I'm lonely" or "You're cute." (I mean sure, you can, but then the person tends to frown and throw garbage at you.) In other words, to talk to strangers, you have to manufacture some excuse, ideally an excuse specific to the person in question. You can't say "I saw a guy one time who had nice shoes." You have to tell the person that _they_ have nice shoes, or something like that, even though most shoes are unremarkable, and thus useless as an excuse. That is, you need a [[Justified Icebreaker]]. However, before we've spoken to someone, we're by definition limited to commenting on only superficially observable features of them, their belongings, or our shared surroundings, in manufacturing an opening remark. And there are apparently many quite social human beings, ones who wouldn't describe themselves as shy, for which the small-talky nature of remarks like "Nice glasses," "Cool hat," "My sister has those shoes," and other fabricated openers, feels sufficiently fake and distasteful that they choose instead not to try meeting people in public places. Mostly, they just lack an important piece of information: whether they'd be bothering the person they're approaching. The lack of this single piece of information is the source of [[The Problem of When]].