Using dating as a teaching moment for zero-indexed arrays is definitely one way to cope with rejection. Sure, there won't be a second date, but hey, at least you managed to explain computer science fundamentals to someone who probably just wanted to grab coffee. The real tragedy here is that they still don't know about negative indexing in Python where you can access arrays from the end. Could've stretched that conversation for at least another awkward minute. Also, fun fact: in JavaScript, -0 and 0 are technically different values (thanks IEEE 754), but array[-0] still just gives you array[0] . Should've mentioned that on the date too. Really seal the deal.