I’m a romantic at the core and I like the three date rule. But I don’t make up the rules. Following that would put me in the friends or the fool zone. The modern paradigm has shifted things around:

Get quickly to the sex first, and if it’s good, then consider dating. Otherwise you’re wasting your time.

It took me a while to accept this and change my paradigm, to accept that sex is now largely recreational. Sigh. But I went with it, because I was tired of failure after failure and being the romantic fool.

In my case, I solved the problem by becoming a woman. When I first tried it for Halloween I couldn’t believe how easy it was to pick up guys.(vs being a straight guy trying to connect with woman). It was so much fun, and had such a positive impact on my psyche and lifestyle, I eventually never went back.