Ask HN: Best tips for holding great conversations with liberal arts alumni?

After my PhD in EE, when I started my graduate work in Linguistics I had quite a shock to see how different they thought and argued (and then I took a course in the philosophy of department, that's a different story altogether).

My advice would be: Try to get the most out of meeting with them. It's easy to look down on the "soft sciences", but you'll be surprised at the insights you may learn. You should not use jargon, even if it sounds mundane to you, they won't understand it and think you're doing it deliberately to look clever.

If/when you need to disagree/contradict them frame it in a way that is not like you are the authority.

Generally, it's probably better (more polite) to say "I am pretty sure it's actually..." or, "I always thought it was .." even when you know 100%.

Wikileaks is probably a good topic of conversation (politics and technology).

Just approach it like you would any other conversation. Ask questions about their lives - everyone likes to talk about themselves. Make jokes. Try not to be nervous. Be yourself. There is no need to act differently just because you're talking to liberal arts alumni.

Assume you are below average: http://sivers.org/below-average