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

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

DISPATCH No 02

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