Okay so I'm reading this article by a PUA and he says not to ask any personal questions to a girl for the first fifteen minutes - we're talking what she does for fun, where she lives, etc.

Then he reckons that the attraction stage should last for 20 minutes before you move to another stage.

wtf? That seems counter-productive.

How do you make an interesting, engaging conversation for 20 minutes without asking personal questions?

He is right, dont ask her any personal questions let her tell you through conversation. You should tell her about yourself. As far as 20 minutes go that is the time frame when you go out and sarge you should be talking to 3 girls per hour minimum for 20 min sessions. Where I disagree is with the time. It should last 4-8 minutes to get her number, longer to kiss her, longer to sleep wit her got it.
You should check out the Emotional Progression Model

Approaching – you see someone you like. What do you do first?
Transitioning – turn an opening line into a real conversation
Attraction – get her attracted to you
Qualification – solidify that attraction and make her feel she’s earned it
Comfort – build comfort and rapport with each other
Seduction – make things overtly sexual – seal the deal
Relationship – what happens next


Do these in order some may take longer than others thus the time frame of 20 minutes

Hope that helps man
P.S.
Check out the book The Mystery Method and Magic Bullets almost all you need are in those two books.

Not asking personal questions, does not mean talking about one self. That's just boring. "Hi. I'm Mike. I like butterflies and rainbows".. It means that until she's attracted to you, just tell stories, discuss interesting things, make her laugh, tease her and have fun. Just stay away from the "Hi.. What'w your name? Where do you work? Where are you from?", and so on.

_________________
~ Nightfox ~

<Facher> Who the fuck drinks alcohol at 2 PM?
<Chief> Oh, you silly non-New Orleans people

So what would you recommend as 'interesting things'? I don't do the whole interview thing and I don't ask about their work. But I might ask if they've seen a movie that's playing, or what they're drinking if it looks unusual.

What do you find interesting? You have the usual chick-crack: relationships, cold reads, the unknown, and so on. If you can come up with something situational, even better, because it makes transitioning from opening easier.

_________________
~ Nightfox ~

<Facher> Who the fuck drinks alcohol at 2 PM?
<Chief> Oh, you silly non-New Orleans people

its just a guideline. dont ask the obvious questions like whats your name, where are you from, what do you do for a living etc... everybody before and after you already asked. you dont want to be the niceguy/nextguy be different have cool routines/stories.

I don't know what I find interesting lol. I guess I like talking about psychology, so do I just randomly start talking about something? Give me an example convo that you used that involved you using a random topic. Pretty much ever FR on here asks those usual questions.

Mind you I do ask one or two of them with the sole intention of extracting useful topics. Like if I ask what they do for fun, then I can expand on their answer.

I do have interesting stories (most of my new female acquaintances laugh) but don't know how to transition to these. Like one is a major cooking stuffup at the office - how do I integrate this into the conversation?