I believe truly having no empathy would make it impossible to form anything other than surface level friendships.

The only precious resource I own is my time, and who I spend it with. The thing in life that makes the hard times seem not so bad, and the good times twice as good, is spending with people I care about, and people that I know care about me.

To be pathological about it… My asking questions about you IS a means to an end. It gives a few useful things:

• I learn about you
• I learn about your worldview, I learn what motivates you
• and I learn where you tend to sell yourself short so I know how to encourage you

Talking about yourself is “giving” when only you share vulnerability. 1 word answers is keeping your guard up. Asking about them is “giving” because you get opportunities to learn about/support/uplift them. People like getting questions. It can make them feel cared for.

And I’m not saying anything is wrong with you. Just sharing my perspective.

And I’m a guy, so I guess you’d really be puzzled if we met IRL!