Honestly, you don’t need dating advice save for “just be yourself”. If a guy isn’t seduced by your extensive lecture about coealacanths, or a girl isn’t impressed by you gaming the McDonald’s systems to finesse yourself 30 free chicken nuggets, you’re on a date with the wrong person. Not a bad person, but one that isn’t the right match for you, and the way you want to live.
First dates are for showing someone “hey this is the kind of life I like to be living”, them doing the same, until you find someone who clicks and you both think “fuck yeah I want to live like this.” Whether that’s sitting in a café judging joggers, or casually committing small crime for shits and giggles.
True on many levels.
Best for you, because IF you get a relationship starting, it’ll be with someone who actually likes who you are
Best for the other person, because you get any glaring red flags outta hiding fast and they can stop wasting time and run
like. If you can’t find a partner because your honest self contains too many things that virtually everyone views as deal breakers? Then you probably need to change, if you can.
But that’s not the same as “acting like someone you’re not.”
And change takes work… and it can’t even start until you get to the point of genuinely believing that something you’ve been doing is wrong and you should be doing something different.
And not everyone can ever get to that point. And the people who don’t, may never have a connection that’s more than “someone liking the made-up character they pretend to be.”
And that’s bad for everyone involved.