Tenacity: if you don't have it, online dating isn't for you. Though match-making websites may seem like a quick alternative to meeting your one true love at a bar, perusing pages of potential dates calls for some dedication. And if you have a deep appreciation for spreadsheets, that helps, too.
Armed with charts, lists and formulas, Amy Webb used what she knew
best to outsmart the online dating algorithms: math. Repeated failures
at meeting her match spurred the digital strategy expert to crack the
code, leading straight to her future husband.
Webb, CEO of WebbMedia Group,
spent a month crunching numbers and analyzing key words to optimize her
JDate profile. She chronicles her journey in her new book, Data, A Love Story.
The concept of math and technology bringing people together first
attracted her to online dating sites, but she quickly realized it wasn't
going to work.
"I'm pretty open about being not religious," Webb tells .
"A few of these sites kept trying to match me up with Orthodox Jewish
rabbis, which could not have been further away ... I looked at the data
and realized it was really going to be impossible for an algorithm to
match me with somebody."
Her initial matches were so bad, she took to sending mid-date email
updates to family and friends while hiding from her suitors in the bar's
bathroom. There was the guy who smoked a huge joint after dinner, the
one who gave continuous high-fives, and of course, the married one.
For those who've had their fair share of awful matchmaker dates, the
cliché "It's not you, it's me" actually rings true. It's your own doing,
Webb says. The information in these sites' databases are user
generated, and most people don't have the ability to be 100% effective.
Bad data goes into the algorithm, so bad data goes out, leaving you
mismatched.
Many people will pour hours into perfecting their résumé, but won't
invest the same amount of time into their digital presence. The
commitment to your profile is necessary, says Webb.
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