On the wire

●DATING GAME · The first message problem. ●BROTHERHOOD · The male friendship recession. ●DATING GAME · Situationships: the relationship category that isn’t. ●STATUS · Granovetter’s weak ties and the people you haven’t met yet. ●BODY · The fitness effect: what the research shows and what it doesn’t. ●ATTRACTION · The confidence variable. ●STYLE · What your shoes communicate before you say anything. ●ATTRACTION · What Buss found.

Hub 01 · 2 dispatches

Dating Game

Apps, openers, escalation, and the actual game theory of swiping in 2026.

DISPATCH No 01

Situationships: the relationship category that isn’t.

The word 'situationship' describes a real phenomenon. The phenomenon predates the word by several decades. What changed is the naming, not the…

Eleanor Vance 7 min

DISPATCH No 02

The first message problem.

The research on what makes opening messages work is more specific than 'be interesting.' It is also more counterintuitive.

Daniel Kestrel 6 min