The chair

There is a brief moment in Iain M. Banks's Use of Weapons that I think about on occasion.  Zakalwe is living on a beach in a hut.  The world is populated by people who are constantly on the move in giant cars.  They think he is odd because he isn't moving, not because he is a beach bum.  It quickly becomes clear that he is there to be alone and think things over.  His interactions with other people are brief and use as little communication as possible.  One day he notices a chair on the beach while he is combing his area for stuff to drag into town and sell.

Some combination of the facts of his situation plus this chair led me to speculate on ways to insinuate yourself into the life of someone who isn't remotely interested in interacting with you.  Introduce interesting items into their environment over some span of time without in any other way being present.  Try to  notice when one of these items is possibly taken by this nut you for some reason want to crack.  Be available for the small chance that you can provide context if this nut for some reason talks to you at some point in the future.  Never, ever, ever reveal what you are actually doing.  Just be a source of information with regards to this one item that somehow interested the nut.

This is how you made most of your friends.

You're the nut.