Do you ever get the feeling people are trying simply to out do you, with no other purpose than one-up-man-ship?

I seem to encounter this allot. People seem to talk or write blogs based on what feels like thin air. Personally I read or listen to everything I can before interjecting in any type of conversation unless I do immediately know the subject of conversation intimately. What are your thoughts on this? Do you just jump blindly into conversations with your own views? Or do respect the time it has taken to form the question? Are you like a bulldozer with no regards for others opinions and do no exploration into what they are talking on? As conversation is such a fine art form, how do you prepare? Or do you just speak?