Comment by svat

You're right, but consider:

• Of course it's very strange; that's why he wrote about it — the point is to convey what is not obvious.

• Of course it's risky, but that's the point of much of the author's journey of social ease, at least the initial stages up to that point. If you're willing to take the risk of coming off <…>, or of an angry reaction, you open yourself up to a wider range of experiences / social interactions. Probably much of the interaction was non-verbal and even the author's paragraph cannot capture exactly what went on.

Not everyone needs to take such risks of course, but the author consciously chose to “install” social skill, and has shared their experience.