A few of our stories.

On Tuesday, 19 July:

We started with a bit of each person’s family background and why the topic appealed to everyone, and then let the conversation evolve. A broad spectrum of topics were discussed, and here we lay them into loosely defined categories along with takeaways:

On April 5th, we held a dinner on “How to Have Tough Conversations.” This dinner was sparked by previous attendees, who wanted to bring crucial, taboo conversations into their day to day life.

We had different definitions of tough, and what makes something tough. We began to explore the fears, expectations/assumptions, feelings, and norms that were involved. Below are some of our questions and thoughts.

As you read, notice what is useful to you — notice what you disagree with, and where that disagreement is coming from. These takeaways are not meant to support one position or another, but as raw ingredients for new thoughts and reflections!

On Feb 16th, we held a dinner on “Modern Love,” about the intersection of technology and dating… about what technology enables, alters, hinders, and creates in the area of love.

CTSTers were keen to discuss online dating experiences, the kind of connection technology encourages or discourages, changing definitions of love, miscommunications, hiding or sharing different parts of the self, porn, and more.

As you read, notice what is useful to you — notice what you disagree with, and where that disagreement is coming from. These questions and takeaways are not meant to support one position or another, but as raw ingredients for new thoughts and reflections!

Religion as a conversation topic was suggested very early on, in the beginning of Cut The Small Talk movement, when we didn’t know how to approach the topic without it being divisive. However, after almost a year’s experience of tackling potentially touchy topics like affairs, death, and drugs and realising that it is indeed possible to keep the evening relatively thought provoking yet civil, we decided to bring it to life.

Making a point of stating that we’re not interested in debating whose beliefs were more legit than others, at the beginning of the Dinner, we also stressed the focus on discussing how everyone was personally affected by their religions (or not), and how relationships, morality, etc were influenced by them.

Below are some discussion topics and takeaways, feel free to give us your comments!

The official definition Impostor syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence.

What would you modify or add to that? How has your own experience been?

On Dec 28th, 15 people had dinner and discussed the ups and downsides of the Impostor syndrome, modern definitions of success, pressure to conform, experiences and how they have changed over time, and how we would like to move forward.

After a couple of weeks of touching on sexy topics, we decided to step out of the metaphorical bedroom and look at a SFW subject on Lies, on the evening of 24 November.  

It started with a comment someone made, “when did deception become okay?” We explored attitudes, intentions, reasons that people have for lying – here are the notes from that evening.

Cause and Effect

How does one decide to lie? What’s the thought process that goes through our minds before we proceed to withhold truth from someone?

Apparently, majority of us in the group aren’t completely opposed to lying.

(NSFW) On Oct 20th, we held a dinner on “Sex & Taboo.” The topic ranged from what is taboo for us and for society, to how we start conversations that are stereotypically hard to have and discover or explore what excites us.

The following is a compilation of
1) sexy and kinky resources and research (9 links)
2) group takeaways, ideas, questions, etc (on why sex is taboo, respect, asking for what you want and more)

As you read, notice what is useful to you — notice what you disagree with, and where that disagreement is coming from. These takeaways are not meant to support one position or another, but as raw ingredients for new thoughts and reflections!