Yellow Flag: Proceed With Snacks

The verdict

You are a good person with a couple of habits that make friends tilt their heads. Maybe you say "it’s fine" when it is not, or reply to a slow texter with exactly the same delay, plus a minute, out of principle. None of it is dangerous. It is just a little bit of theater.

The good news is that yellow flags are the easiest to fix, because they usually come from wanting to protect yourself rather than wanting to hurt anyone. Say the real thing out loud and most of yours disappear.

What you get right

• Warm, funny and fun to be around
• Shows up for the big moments
• Self-aware enough to laugh at your own flags
• Usually apologizes, eventually

Yellow alerts

• Hints instead of saying what you need
• A tiny bit of scorekeeping in texting
• Jokes used as an escape hatch from serious talks

Fix-it tip

Replace one hint per week with one direct sentence. "I was looking forward to tonight and I’m disappointed" works better than any vague story post ever written.

Flag chemistry

Flag tags

• it’s fine (it’s not)
• strategic replies
• big heart
• small drama
• fixable