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The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

nautil.us

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Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#3

Post by tashoecraft »

susan_hall wrote: post #2

At the moment, this post has 4 upvotes and yet it is in the #7 place on the front page of Hacker News. How is that possible? 4 upvotes gets a post that high on the front page?

submitters karma is 25637, that probably has something to do with it.

Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#5

Post by sxg »

susan_hall wrote: post #2

At the moment, this post has 4 upvotes and yet it is in the #7 place on the front page of Hacker News. How is that possible? 4 upvotes gets a post that high on the front page?

It's Saturday afternoon in the US. Not exactly the busiest time for news. I don't know how Hacker News' ranking algorithm works, but I'd imagine it's possible to incorporate information like number of clicks in addition to upvotes and comments.

Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#7

Post by nitrogen »

sxg wrote: post #5
susan_hall wrote: post #2

At the moment, this post has 4 upvotes and yet it is in the #7 place on the front page of Hacker News. How is that possible? 4 upvotes gets a post that high on the front page?

It's Saturday afternoon in the US. Not exactly the busiest time for news. I don't know how Hacker News' ranking algorithm works, but I'd imagine it's possible to incorporate information like number of clicks in addition to upvotes and comments.

There's probably an age-of-post component as well so new content has a chance to be seen.

Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#8

Post by 0x0 »

tashoecraft wrote: post #3
susan_hall wrote: post #2

At the moment, this post has 4 upvotes and yet it is in the #7 place on the front page of Hacker News. How is that possible? 4 upvotes gets a post that high on the front page?

submitters karma is 25637, that probably has something to do with it.

Quite impressive karma count for only having 10 comments. A zillion story submissions of which almost all are from nautil.us though. What's going on here?

Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#9

Post by jasode »

>So is there an ideally sized choice set when it comes to dating—one large enough to include variety and depth, yet small enough that you can fairly weigh each prospect’s potential without tripping your brain’s overload switch? [...] Fisher puts people somewhere in the middle of that range. “Once you’ve met nine people who are vaguely in the ballpark, choose one and get to know that person better. If nothing works in that nine, go for another nine,” she says.

The article talks about simultaneous choices (choice overload). A related concept is serial choices and the "when to stop looking for The One" dilemma. That's been modeled as The Secretary Problem[1] which calculates a 37% stopping point. It also has been discussed by several authors: [2] [3] [4] [5]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem

[2]https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Deci...

[3]https://youtu.be/OwKj-wgXteo?t=10m12s

[4]https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Love-Patterns-Ultimate-Eq...

[5]https://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_fry_the_mathematics_of_love...

Re: The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice

#10

Post by resonantjacket5 »

0x0 wrote: post #8
tashoecraft wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

submitters karma is 25637, that probably has something to do with it.

Quite impressive karma count for only having 10 comments. A zillion story submissions of which almost all are from nautil.us though. What's going on here?

It's not as nefarious at it seems. The guy/girl just submits three or four stories a day from nautil.us / new york times/ phys.org mostly.

And over time just built up some points. Probably just shot up because of 4 upvotes at the same time.

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