Comment by acuozzo

> When you do that it is perceived by most people as you trying to one-up them in the conversation

This depends entirely on the content of your reply and how well-trained you are in social cues as well as other unspoken parts of conversation.

It's also not comprehensive advice. Of course you should first help the person on the other side of the conversation reach where they're intending to go in what they're saying.

My advice is more applicable to the "sequence points" of a conversation.

> Just walking into a conversation while trying to pivot it

Doing this would be foolish. You have to read the cues for when the time is right. You also need to develop the right conversational demeanor to pull it off. This necessitates practice.