[deleted]
Yes it does. That's why his bots were getting banned.
How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
11–20 of 193 posts
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#12Isn't the whole concept of matching on a bunch of survey questions BS? 90% of attraction is butt-sniffing DNA match stuff you only get in person.
The questions are an excellent initial filter if you've flagged a few obvious deal breakers. It's the FizzBuzz of dating. Then you move on to personally examining the profiles of people who have passed that test, contact them, and so on.
It's certainly not an optimal system for casual sex, but it does a reasonable job of finding candidates for any relationship more serious than that.
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#13I did something similar 4 years ago. My OkCupid profile was receiving about 3-10 visits/week from women, and I had only a small handful that I matched 90+% with. I deleted all my answers and answered just the minimum required with complete honesty but zero possibility of controversy. My match % was 95+% with everyone and my inbound views turned into 100+/week.
The match percentage was useless as a filter, but who cares? The new filter was my profile, and women who liked it messaged me.
Within a few weeks I'd been on several dates — I'm now married to the last woman I dated from then. She messaged me.
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#14> It was first date number 88. A second date followed, then a third. After two weeks they both suspended their OkCupid accounts. You know... there's a damn big chance you find someone worth having a relationship after 88 dates . Something tells me his technique was no better than just dating at random.
Or, let's admit it, he sucked in real life human relationships. I mean we all sucked in first X dates, just, hopefully, took less than 88 to realize that whatever you are doing is just wrong :)
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#15I'll give the guy credit for coming up with a creative idea [1], but for a guy who was overly concerned with efficiency, going on 55 first dates and only 3 second dates strikes me as absolutely insane and a waste of time. It would be similar to having 55 in-person interviews and only making 3 offers. Something is going wrong in the funnel. I don't see how his system was better than just using the site as it is intend…
This is a little bit off topic, but although I agree that [1] does fail the categorical imperative, it isn't because "If everybody did this okcupid would be much worse off."
The categorical imperative is not a consequentialist motivation. It doesn't say, "Don't do X if doing so would make Y worse off."
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#16> It was first date number 88. A second date followed, then a third. After two weeks they both suspended their OkCupid accounts. You know... there's a damn big chance you find someone worth having a relationship after 88 dates . Something tells me his technique was no better than just dating at random.
No better? Arguably much worse, if it took 88 attempts...
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#17> It was first date number 88. A second date followed, then a third. After two weeks they both suspended their OkCupid accounts. You know... there's a damn big chance you find someone worth having a relationship after 88 dates . Something tells me his technique was no better than just dating at random.
I think you are missing the point of his strategy. Before this he had 6 dates in nine months, his primary problem was the top of the funnel. I don't think this strategy helped him improve quality, but it did lead to quantity which at the end of the day got him this result. And I think with online dating quantity matters as the signals you are using to select are so poor.
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#18This is a duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7098563 Also, here's my .02 re-posted from the comments section: Rather than answer the questions that were important to him he decided to find a set of people he thought he would like then only answer the questions they care about, and not even the way he would naturally answer them, rather he used an algorithm to determine the weight that would be best to…
Yeah, I feel like all he did in the end is find a way of getting a lot of people interested in his profile (by tweaking the score so that it would be as close as 100% as possible) and then go on a lot of dates.The real issue here is probably the asymmetry in male/female messages and requests rates on OkCupid...
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#19Isn't the whole concept of matching on a bunch of survey questions BS? 90% of attraction is butt-sniffing DNA match stuff you only get in person.
The questions are an excellent initial filter if you've flagged a few obvious deal breakers. It's the FizzBuzz of dating. Then you move on to personally examining the profiles of people who have passed that test, contact them, and so on. It's certainly not an optimal system for casual sex, but it does a reasonable job of finding candidates for any relationship more serious than that.
But people are totally full of it on what their deal breakers are. They'll thoughtfully answer a survey one way but then behave very differently in smelly meatspace.
Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
#20This is a duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7098563 Also, here's my .02 re-posted from the comments section: Rather than answer the questions that were important to him he decided to find a set of people he thought he would like then only answer the questions they care about, and not even the way he would naturally answer them, rather he used an algorithm to determine the weight that would be best to…
I celebrate this. Two people found love and are getting married. I think it's great. He answered all questions truthfully but let the code determine the weight of each answer. It's not like he wasn't giving honest answers. And yes, he created two profiles, but then deleted one. He wasn't sure which group of women he'd match up with best. I guess you see this as fundamentally dishonest but I think the couple says it best:
“People are much more complicated than their profiles,” she says. “So the way we met was kind of superficial, but everything that happened after is not superficial at all. It’s been cultivated through a lot of work.”
“It’s not like, we matched and therefore we have a great relationship,” McKinlay agrees. “It was just a mechanism to put us in the same room."