Effort == Return ?

Sometimes people wonder. Does putting in effort ensure returns? In my opinion, i disagree. I am sure many have faced the problem where conversation is often one-sided. One party is trying hard to put in effort to keep the conversation alive, while the other makes no attempt to reciprocate. He/she will just be replying for the sake of replying, while the formal tries his/her best to come up with topics again and again. Is this a healthy conversation? I doubt so. So what can the formal do to make the conversation a better one? I would say, nothing. People often say, it takes two hands to clap. The same logic applies here. If you are just gonna stick your warm cheek to his/her cold butt (its a direct chinese translation of 把自己的热脸贴到别人的冷屁股上）, nothing's gonna change.

Why do some people only have the same group of friends for a donkey age, while some have different groups of friends in different stages of their life? Nothing can be said which is better, but the grass on the other pasture does always look greener. This is something that we, as social animals, should be pondering upon.