In this video, I’m sitting down with Lillian Zhang on the UC Berkeley campus to talk about the kind of Bay Area dating-app energy that feels weirdly consistent—like every first date has the same script. We start with an awkward Tinder dinner story where the guy opens with “what’s your major?” and immediately turns it into an interrogation. The vibe was off from the texts, it was off in person, and then it somehow got even stranger when he accidentally texted her screenshots of her own profile. That whole situation turns into a bigger conversation about how hard it is to filter compatibility through an app when all you have is text. From there, we get into the part that actually matters: communication. I talk about how I hate texting, why vague “maybe” plans feel like an open loop, and how people end up playing defense—timing messages like it’s chess so they don’t look “too desperate.” We also get honest about rejection and ego: sometimes it’s not even about liking the person, it’s about what it triggers in you when you feel not-liked. The takeaway is annoying but true—dating kind of becomes a numbers game, not because people are disposable, but because you need enough reps to learn what you want and stop spiraling every time it goes poorly.