Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 193 posts

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#51

Post by Pxtl »

mehkcupid wrote: post #13

I 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 car…

...so wait, their system treats you like dirt if you provide more information? Somewhere out there a data miner is laughing his ass off.

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#52

Post by DannyBee »

randallsquared wrote: post #41
crazygringo wrote: post #28

It's funny... doing all this 'hacking' to create profiles with awesome match %'s... is pretty pointless. In my personal experience, a match below 80% is a red flag (serious incompatibilities), but above 85% there aren't any big differences. Like he said, he went on 55 dates, but only three second dates. The 55 dates really isn't too hard to do without the hacking, it's just a question of time. And the "three second d…

"he probably would have done better just simply browsing on the site, and only directly messaging the girls he found interesting in the first place." He'd already tried that, the article claimed. The problem is that he didn't know what was important to the women he was interested in, and so didn't know what parts of his life to mention in the OKC profile, to attract first dates from women he, as you note, might well…

If he doesn't know what the women he's interested in are interested in, i'd seriously question whether he's the person the people he's looking for, are looking for.

I think a large number of essentially useless dates bears this out

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#53

Post by ForHackernews »

fchollet wrote: post #27
cocoflunchy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I always thought that the messaging asymmetry on dating sites was purely a reflection of the real-world asymmetry of dating, where females will almost never initiate a flirt sequence themselves. The universal expectation is that it is the role of the male to manifest interest in, and worthiness of, the female. Not that I agree with this, but it would be difficult not to observe it. I remember reading somewhere that t…

> females will almost never initiate a flirt sequence themselves

POTENTIAL ROMANTIC PARTNER DETECTED

FEMALE FLIRT SEQUENCE INITIATED

EXCEPTION: HUMAN EMOTION FOUND

ABORT, RETRY, FAIL?

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#54

Post by aestra »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #5

Isn'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.

They are good for some things. They ask you about for example your views on religion and drug use, potential deal breakers you want to filter out from the get go. Thats what they are best for.

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#55

Post by klipt »

judk wrote: post #40
a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> females will almost never initiate a flirt sequence It's the opposite. In environments like parties and bars women subtly initiate most interactions. They maneuver closer and do the glance thing.

They do, but men don't notice that. Men initiate conversation regardless, or women go home wondering why no one responded to their cues.

> or women go home wondering why no one responded to their cues

Same reason they ignore certain men - lack of attraction.

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#56

Post by com2kid »

justinsteele wrote: post #44
com2kid wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 55 dates really isn't too hard to do without the hacking, it's just a question of time. That I disagree with, 4 years and hundreds upon hundreds of hours sunk into OKC, and I've had maybe 2 dozen dates from it. Knowing how to optimize the site would be very useful. From pictures (OKC has MyBestFace that helps with that) to profile text. This guy obviously had good pictures (great pictures alone can make a profi…

Have you had an opposite gender friend review your profile?

Yup, that I have. Everything is so very subjective though, even pictures!

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#57

Post by DannyBee »

scarmig wrote: post #50
justinsteele wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you had an opposite gender friend review your profile?

The generally accepted rule is 1) Be attractive and 2) Don't be unattractive. That's more than a bit reductionist, of course, but tweaking your profile text or message texts only helps at the margins, assuming you don't have deal breakers. com2kid isn't going to be getting dozens of inbound messages a month just by revising his profile (sorry, com2kid). (On the other hand, updating your pictures genuinely can give yo…

Sorry, but this is just bullshit. It's what guys tell themselves because they can't write reasonable profiles or write non-creepy messages to women.

I've read what most guys send my female friends on okcupid. Not just the random idiots, but what i would think would be otherwise intelligent people. It often comes off as desperate or creepy.

It's certainly true that it helps to be attractive. But I'm an average looking guy, but i have no problem finding dates on okcupid.

I've summarized the average guy profile here: http://www.okcupid.com/profile/RegularOKCGuy?disable_mobile=...

(humorously, this profile gets almost as many likes as my real profile)

Realistically, have someone of the opposite sex that is the type of person you want to attract, read your profile. Ask them questions about what they like and don't.

That will solve your profile problems. As for messages, this is harder.

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#59

Post by Qworg »

crazygringo wrote: post #28

It's funny... doing all this 'hacking' to create profiles with awesome match %'s... is pretty pointless. In my personal experience, a match below 80% is a red flag (serious incompatibilities), but above 85% there aren't any big differences. Like he said, he went on 55 dates, but only three second dates. The 55 dates really isn't too hard to do without the hacking, it's just a question of time. And the "three second d…

I thought HN of all places would celebrate this - a growth hack by a down and out mathematician. He just increased his inbound funnel by many multiples. He's now "killing it" and has been acquihired by his target. ;)

Re: How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love

#60

Post by ahomescu1 »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #30
fchollet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought that the messaging asymmetry on dating sites was purely a reflection of the real-world asymmetry of dating, where females will almost never initiate a flirt sequence themselves. The universal expectation is that it is the role of the male to manifest interest in, and worthiness of, the female. Not that I agree with this, but it would be difficult not to observe it. I remember reading somewhere that t…

> females will almost never initiate a flirt sequence It's the opposite. In environments like parties and bars women subtly initiate most interactions. They maneuver closer and do the glance thing.

Women generally don't go up to men and start talking or flirting. Glancing/maneuvering isn't overt initiation.
Post reply on HN