There’s the crucial first minute that you meet anyone. You know immediately whether the conversation will continue or whether it will die because it never started.

There’s this awkward moment that you have with someone—both of you give introductions, then you do the small talk of who/what/where you are, and then it’s open from there. It’s right at the third point where it can continue branching or end with an awkward “I am going to get a drink”. But what makes it the former rather than the latter. Is it because the two of you were destined to…click?

The Game says it’s different. You can engage someone through different means—trickery, negs and the like. And it works.

Like everyone, I find those instant clicks easily. Perhaps I am engaged in their ideas—not just for my professional goals, but because it is sooo fascinating. Or that I am drawn in because their choices in life are so similar to mine and I never thought about it that way. Or what usually strikes me is when there a similarity that I have always believed was unique only to me—and I find it in someone else (see Chris and always drinking horchata when eating at a taco truck). Whatever the case, I am jaded now, because the instant click doesn’t usually last beyond the first three encounters. It fades into everyday mundane-ness, realizing that you both have very different goals and desires. Sometimes it’s fundamental differences.

But what about when it lasts more than the first three encounters. It’s like magnets. I think though that you often find someone that is like yourself—a friend…someone deeper—but different enough that’s there is always so much more to discover.