he tries too hard to talk about what he wants to talk about and unfortunately it’s pushing others away

I had a friend like that. He would talk about whatever he wanted regardless of what anyone else wanted. We could be silent, and I’d bring up a topic. He would completely ignore it and start talking about whatever he wanted. If I pointed it out, he would either ignore that or tell me why I’m wrong for wanting to talk about my topic. It got progressively worse to the point I had to cut him off and block him on all communication avenues. It sucks because he was a longtime friend that wasn’t always like that. I think his success in academia made him a bit grandiose and entitled.