If you ask questions about the other person, in most cases they will believe you are genuinely interested in them and will respond in kind. There will always be paranoid people out there who will be suspicious of any question you ask them.
A catch phrase I hear often is ‘so what’s new?’
This isn’t an opportunity to share all the awful things happening right now in your life. It is an open door to share what projects you are working on and success stories worth sharing. Sharing… not bragging about.
As originally answered on Quora.com