"Hardballing" has long been used in business to mean using whatever tactics necessary to reach a goal. The term has now moved into the dating world, and you may have heard people using it to describe a dating approach whereby someone is very upfront very early on about what they want and don't want. More people are talking on social media about being a lot more direct on dates in order to save time and effort.

A classic example of hardballing is telling the other person, on a first date, "I want two kids and want to get started within two years. So, I'm not messing around here." That type of frankness may scare away the people who don't want kids or just want to mess around with you. It could also scare aware people who can't handle someone who is so upfront. It could end up being a time and effort saver. After all, a lot of dating is figuring out who the other person really is. Hardballing can be a bit like fast-forwarding towards the end of the dating movie, past all that opening sequence stuff where you have no idea who the main characters really are.

For similar reasons, you may prefer others hardballing you. It's basically cutting to the chase, which may in turn cut down the chase you have to either make or endure.

Getting hardballed can be easier to........

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