I don't really know exactly. I just seem to have an aptitude for reading people and situations. I had no idea I could even do it untill one day in college when a teacher did one of those ice breaking things for the first day of class, and asked the class something like "what can you say about me just by looking at me?" Most people couldn't think of much but I was able to tell him all about himself with about 80 percent accuracy. I thought this was normal before that.

I think that you have to be one of those people/learn to be one of those people, who is good at the following: 1) Being very detail oriented, 2) being able to see things for what they really are(like an artist who knows that snow is made up of many colours and textures, and isn't just white like most ppl think), 3) someone who always asks why - why things happen the way they do, why people do things the way they do etc, 4)being good at general logic, deductive reasoning, general knowlege of general things (why did does that person have dust on their shoes? How did it get there? Why are they wearing a ring like that - what does it imply about their life situation/personality/priorities etc? what is that scar from? a specific kind of surgery? why did they need it? what does that say about the kind of person they are?) 5) be good at reading body language and facial expressons. This is the hardest but most usefull part. Communication is 80 percent non verbal so it would benefit anyone to learn all about bodylanguge and facial expression, if, for nothing else, to be able to tell if someone is lying to you.

These are the skills that 'fortune tellers' have, and use to deceive you. They aren't magic. If you get really good at this stuff, you can do that thing that magicians do, where they guess the name of your pet or something - it takes a lot of practice and I can't do it yet. But all it is, is looking at the person's very subtle body language in reaction to your own verbal cues. It isn't magic at all. It's a fun party trick though. And in your business life, it behooves you to get people to remember you. And it's kind of fun!

So I practiced and also read a few books, and soon you can get good at it. It can give you an advantage in terms of social interaction because knowing as much as possible about a person you are interacting with is always an advantage. Particularily if you can even try to predict their future actions.

But remember, this is an art and a science and it isn't 100 percent accurate so be mindfull of sterotypes and remember to give ppl the benefit of the doubt.