How to make anyone like you even if you're socially awkward

Dale Carnegie wrote in How to Win Friends & Influence People
that the way to make anyone like you instantly is to compliment them. This is mostly true -- if and only if the compliment is genuine. "You look especially pretty today, Sally!" is a totally nerdy way to get a girl to like you if you're a guy (or a girl who rolls like that). "Nice tie, Steve," will do for most guys. "I really like the way you..." is a wonderful way to start a compliment.

Dale Carnegie should have issued a caveat about this strategy: If you're full of it or go over the top, it will backfire. Nobody likes an obsequious flatterer. For a true nerd, there is a real danger of coming off that way.

And what if you just can't think of anything nice to say to someone? It happens. Sometimes your mind is consumed by figuring how to instantiate a new object from a class in a way that won't swamp memory with all those new copies of the class instance variables, and you just can't be bothered with discovering and expressing words of praise for someone, no matter how much you may like that person and want them to like you. True nerds know exactly the dilemma of which I speak: Do you allocate precious brain power to relating to other people or to solving the problems that only nerds can solve. This is one of the most fundamental parts of being a nerd. No need for some fancy syndrome to explain this -- Asperger's or whatever -- plain vanilla nerdiness covers it.

What do you do when you can't think of anything nice to say, but you want the person to like you?

STFU. It's more likely that you'll regret something you did say than that you'll regret something you didn't say. When in doubt, just STFU. That way, when you do say something, people will be more likely to hear and respect what you have to say.

Dale Carnegie said something about that, too, but I don't remember exactly what.