I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something. I would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn't know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.
Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.
I build a wall around myself. I'm hard to get to know. Any trait you have, it gets worse as you go along.