For me, when a tangent conversations starts to die out, I literally say “So… what do you think about [previous topic]?”. The other person will usually laugh, probably because they didn’t even realize that they went off on a tangent.
The main value we’ve gotten from the backthumb norm isn’t to get back to the previous topic after a tangent dies out. It’s to kill useless/unwanted tangents before we waste time on them.
For me, when a tangent conversations starts to die out, I literally say “So… what do you think about [previous topic]?”. The other person will usually laugh, probably because they didn’t even realize that they went off on a tangent.
The main value we’ve gotten from the backthumb norm isn’t to get back to the previous topic after a tangent dies out. It’s to kill useless/unwanted tangents before we waste time on them.