Below are the possible outcomes if you ask someone out:
A reply of "Yes".
A reply of "No".
No reply at all.
Considerable anguish could be avoided if people understood that outcomes 2 and 3 are the same.
Let's Go Through The Bullets Above In Greater Detail
A reply of "Yes". A reply of "Yes" could in fact mean literally "yes". However, be prepared to find out that in some cases, "Yes" may also mean "No", but the object of your affection has no interest in discussing the matter right now.
A reply of "No". Hopefully not too much explanation is required for this item, but for any slow learners, the object of your affection is not interested.
No reply at all. The above point is intended to be the main takeaway of this web page. The object of your affection is NOT interested.
Possibly in any situation, but especially if you are a man on a dating website, outcomes 2 and 3 are very likely because a woman finds your income prospects to be inadequate.
As I am typing this web page, many men believe in good faith that they have dates coming up because women said "yes".
However, some of those men may be disappointed to learn that those women only said yes in order to end the conversation.
Some of those scheduled dates will in fact never happen.
An Analogy
I have a friend who is absolutely convinced that all her relatives will be going to the very most prestigious universities.
However, her relatives' standardized test scores are all well below the range of scores of typical applicants that those universities accept.
She believes that those universities should look beyond her relative's test scores.
However, such a belief is nonsense.
Yes, there can be exceptions due to very substantial donations or other business reason.
However, with regards to the general population, even when limiting acceptances to just applicants with very high standardized test scores, some applicants with high test scores will still get rejected.
Similarly, as I write this web page there are men who believe that women on dating websites will consider them as romantic partners regardless of their ability to provide for them financially.
What About Context?
Before encountering outcomes 2 or 3, one or more of the following may have happened:
The only communication was that you responded to his or her profile on some dating or social media website.
You emailed or chatted back and forth.
You talked with each other one or more times on the telephone.
You met one or more times in person.
What is the significance of outcomes 2 and 3 with regard to the list above?
The list above has no significance with regard to outcomes 2 and 3.
If you have arrived at either outcome 2 or outcome 3, the path by which you arrived does not matter.
However, if you are a particularly insightful individual, you might be able to use context to determine when "Yes" means "No".
Conclusion
This page is in my website's Online Dating Or Merely Dating Adjacent section.
When applying the content on this web page to topics outside dating, you will have to take into account whatever applicable context.
When applying for a job, the point at which "no answer" is in fact a no will be trickier to decide than in the context dating.
Just as with my web pages on educating people aware online scams, this web page will not change the world, but it may reach a few people here and there.