I was in a meeting today and the woman leading it was about to demonstrate something on her computer. We all gathered around her laptop and watched as she typed in an exceptionally long password. One boy commented on her level of privacy protection and she told us that her password was a sentence.

She said she had read an article once about a guy who had begun using sentences as passwords, and eventually they became daily mantras for him. These mantras changed every few months when he was required to change his password.

So one day, he was prompted to change his password shortly after he’d met a girl he liked. He made his password AskHerOut.

After several computer logins, he took his own advice and asked the girl out for dinner. She said yes.

That first date turned into many more dates, and eventually into a serious relationship.

All the while, his password was changing from mantra to mantra on how to move the relationship along. TellHerYouLoveHer. AskHerToMoveInWithYou. And finally, AskHerToMarryYou.

Blah blah blah. They got married. Mazel tov.

Remember in middle school, when you learned about how Native Americans killed animals, you were told that it was okay because they didn’t waste a single part of the animal? You learned that they ate the meat, used the bones and teeth for tools, and wore the fur.

I feel like this guy is kind of like the Native Americans. Rather than waste a tiny part of his life on a meaningless combination of his late pet’s name and the last four digits of his mom’s cell, he utilized it to advance his happiness.

I really think that if this tactic caught on, we could all start getting what we want sooner. Now, we’ll spend a year contemplating whether or not to ask someone out, and then realize they graduated and got a job in New Zealand by the time we decide that yes! You know what, that Jimmy would be lucky to go out with me. I’m almost the full package—three fifths, I’d say. Four on a good day. But two on a bad…maybe I shouldn’t. No, I’m going to. Next time I see him, I’m gonna avoid eye contact, go straight home, and text him.

If we employed the mantra password strategy and had to remind ourselves several times a day to AskJimmyOut, we might get it done before it’s too late and he decides that he’s kind of over the Northern Hemisphere.

Maybe if Harry’s password had been AskSallyOut, the two may have gotten together sooner and we could have watched their relationship play out. Or if Sandy’s had been StartSmokingDannyIsWorthLungCancer, maybe she would have changed who she was for a man earlier on.

But despite the obvious merits of the newly wed’s system, I do see a few flaws in it.

It seems that the status of his relationship became simultaneously dependent on and pressured by when he was required to change his password. While these periodic computer prompts forced him to reflect on his situation and decide where he wanted things to go, could he really move backwards if he so chose?

Let’s say he had wanted to slow things down. Would he really have changed his password from PlanAGreatValentinesDay to DontMeetHerParents or DontLeaveAToothbrush?

Maybe, but because these password changes become relationship benchmarks, it seems that there would be an inevitable pressure to keep progressing.

The other issue is, what if he needed to give her his password? What if, after she moved in with him, he needed some information off of his computer and she was home? What if he had to tell her over the phone that his password was AskHerToMarryYou. That would be the worst proposal ever.

I weighed the pros and cons of the mantra method for the remainder of the meeting. I have yet to change my password, but maybe I would have if my current one was ChangeYourPassword.

I’llLetYouKnowWhatHappens.