I realize that I already asked a question like this not long ago but believe that I failed to express what I actually wanted properly. If this is against the rules, I request that the mods delete it accordingly.
I struggle to be interested in people if there's not something immediately noticeable about them to catch my interest- a shared perspective, something about them that calls attention to them, and sometimes it's something that I can't describe. I've tried the often recommended technique of just listening to others in the hope that they will eventually reveal something about themselves that is interesting to me, but often it never moves beyond the most superficial levels of small talk (which further bores and repels me because I see it as nothing more than verbal filler), and attempts on my end to shift the topic to things that I would like to know about them result in either changing the subject back or a response along the lines of "none of your business".
I'm aware that you have to go into any social interaction with genuine intentions, but I have always had a results-driven mentality and when my efforts don't produce anything that I could consider to be results I feel like I've only wasted my time. I know that interesting people do exist and have even been able to find a few through luck and observing their behavior to find the things that catch my interest about them, but such methods are overly dependent on luck and the other person wearing their heart on their sleeve. I have attempted to feign interest in their interests before, but the act feels so transparently fake that I cannot imagine that the other person can't immediately tell that it's fake too.
So how do I go about looking for those interesting things or coax others into revealing them to me of their own will?