I used to think similarly but I found that both "other people" and "small talk" can be rather interesting if you approach them with a bit of an anthropological pov: Everyone is interesting if you dig just a bit (and I don't mean that in a hippy way but actually). You can make into your own game, to see if/how fast you can stir the conversation in an interesting direction. And even simple small talk is interesting because if you pay attention to the subtexts, you can see the "real" person peaking out.
I do like people and I'm fine with office chit-chat, but my major problem is I can't really steer conversations toward anything with any real depth in most situations unless I'm talking to people who like to debate or talk deeply about ideas.
And even then, I find myself sitting there learning about the intricacies of different automobile designs, which while better than small talk, can still be kind of boring.
At least that what I try to do.