Thanks for your comment and resteem! Glad you got something useful from the article.

Learning to truly listen is surprisingly difficult. We think we know how, but much of the time I also catch myself in what you shared: "listen with the intent to reply."

When people are trying to "rush" me for a response (or "provoke a reaction") I tend to come back to them with something along the lines of "That's a really good/interesting question!" as a means to slow down the pace of the dialogue until I can think through what I want to respond with. If people aren't willing to wait for that, then maybe I am best off not saying anything at all.