CLARITY IN INTENTIONS 

Now, when I meet someone new and ask to exchange contact info, I quickly add: “I’m not trying to date you.” 

This clarity appears to help. (I’ve not been rejected yet, at least.) 

But perhaps the most important of my takeaways is to be intentional with friends, both old and new. 

To keep in touch with people, we first need to know who we want to keep in touch with. 

One exercise I found helpful was the making of a friendship map — something I lifted from We Need To Hang Out by Billy Baker. 

For this, Baker uses Dunbar’s Number — anthropologist Robin Dunbar’s theory that 150 is the typical number of people we can keep track of and consider part of our ongoing social network at any one time.

What’s more interesting are the numbers in between: Dunbar estimates that we would have about five close friends, 15 we would consider family, 50 we would see as part of our clan, and the remaining 80 as part of our tribe.