It's definitely a good idea to use the "dating" period to scope things out. Think of it like driving a car. Sometimes when we first start driving we often tend to only look at only what's closest or right in front of us. This leads to unforeseen accidents and sometimes bad judgment calls. Now when we take the time to scope things out far ahead of time before we reach the point of no return we can make the right calls avoiding any inconvenient accidents

Weird analogy, I know, but it works for the situation we often find ourselves in where we're driven by pure emotion and never bother to scope the person out to see if it's really a good idea to push the gas pedal or pump the brakes!