Skip to entries
sunkcost.dating
Entries
106
Dates
66.28 hrs
Travel
25 hr 12 min
Total time
91 hr 28 min
Cost
$4,011.48
Cost per date hour
$60.52
Recoverable
none

Latest term sighted

soft-cap dating

noun phrase

Stated meaning
Pausing new outreach to concentrate on one person while keeping at most one other conversation open, so that compatibility can be judged without losing every other lead.
Operating meaning
One person in focus and one conversation kept warm in case the focus does not hold, which is a rotation of 2 described as restraint.
Entry 106

Autopsy · Subject H.

Dynamic opposites

147 minutes at a brewery, $71.67, 9 questions from her and 6 from me, 4 phone checks, all hers, all on call. She closed it at 12:48 pm the next day.

Entry 104

Autopsy · Subject G.

Perfect

No second date held. Her last message was 1 word, on October 11, and neither of us sent another. The account closes at $263.09, 210 minutes and 36 days.

Entry 103

the cardinal rule

noun phrase, in full 'the cardinal rule of relationships'

A ranking of two people by how little each admits to wanting, so that the strongest position in a couple is the one nearest the door.

Entry 102

just not that into you

phrase, used as a verdict, usually after 'he's'

Writes off an account on the evidence of its activity, conceding that some interest exists and ruling the amount insufficient, usually on a summary prepared by the party who will be relieved by the ruling.

Entry 101

Dutch treat

noun, also adverb

Each party paying their own share, which closes the bill at the table and opens a second account in what the offer to pay was meant to say.

Entry 100

buying temperature

noun phrase, also 'buying temp'

A customer's readiness to sign, read off a date, so that every sign of interest is logged as progress toward a close.

Entry 099

Payers

noun, plural, a defined term in Match Group's annual report

The users a dating company earned money from that month, counted on a line of their own, which makes everyone else on the app what their money bought access to.

Entry 098

beige flag

noun

A partner's harmless habit entered in the record as a finding, so that the review of a person runs to items that bear on nothing.

Entry 097

centering men

verb phrase

A life's plans allocated against one open position, so that the search for a partner is budgeted ahead of everything it was meant to sit beside, and every line is dated from an acquisition that has no date.

Entry 096

relational equity

noun phrase, also 'relationship equity'

Past spending held as a claim on future loyalty, against a counterparty who never signed for it.

Entry 095

the rules

noun, plural, a book title used as the name of its method

A 35-item schedule of things not done, run toward marriage on a deadline, in which interest is shown by what is declined: the first call, the late invitation, the end of the evening.

Entry 094

loud looking

noun phrase, also verb, as in “singles are loud looking”

Telling a match at the outset what you want, a practice 1 sentence long that the dating apps have renamed 3 times since 2022 and announced as new each time.

Entry 093

low effort

adjective phrase, also written 'low-effort'

Effort measured by the party who feels it is missing, against a quantity nobody has stated.

Entry 092

princess treatment

noun phrase

A list of courtesies kept as a standard, so that each one done is a line delivered and each one missed is a line outstanding.

Entry 091

attachment style

noun phrase, usually with secure, anxious or avoidant

A forecast taken from a quiz and issued on an early date, which explains how the relationship will fail before there is one.

Entry 090

toxic

adjective, also in the phrase 'my toxic trait'

A hazard label applied in advance, usually by the hazard, so that whatever follows has been disclosed.

Entry 089

exclusive

adjective, usually in the phrase 'going exclusive'

An agreement to stop seeing other people that stops short of a relationship, so that both parties have given something up and neither has been given a title.

Entry 088

reciprocity

noun

A balance that both partners are told to maintain and neither is supposed to be seen calculating.

Entry 087

Autopsy · Subject G.

Do you need money

210 minutes across 3 venues, $263.09, 10 questions each. At the check she asked whether I needed money. I said no, and paid for all 3.

Entry 086

matching energy

verb phrase, usually 'match my energy'

A rule under which each party waits to be shown what to return, so that the level can hold or fall and never rise.