Life Without a Net
Dating
The Pitfalls of Being a Selector
Thanks to Dalrock for reminding me of this amusing example of the different ways men and women often view relationships. I’ll paraphrase the story: There’s a store that sells husbands, and it has six floors. Any woman can visit, but only once. She can choose to ascend one floor if she wants, or she can … Continue reading
Dating Tips: Decoy and Anchor
Today I’m going to go straight to dating advice, but it’s going to be based on two principles of human irrationality. I spend so much time talking about how bad irrationality is, it seems like a good idea to show you a couple of ways it can work to your advantage. First, I need to … Continue reading
Keeping Doors Open
I wrote recently of the cognitive limit humans encounter when they try to choose between too many options. Today, I want to look at more of the cognitive “down sides” of choice. To begin with, let’s remember that the perception of choice is very important to human happiness. (Actually, it’s very important to lots of … Continue reading
Social Groups, Social Proof, and Game
In my recent post about online dating, I mentioned some of the reasons why it’s a poor percentage play, and encouraged singles to go out and meet people in person. Today, I want to talk about some of the reasons going out is a high percentage play. I’ll also mention some ways to use group … Continue reading
Dating Sites Don’t Work
For several months now, I’ve had a profile on OkCupid.com. No, I will not tell you the profile name, and no, you could not guess it from information off of this blog. And anyway, I’m honestly not there to find a date. I am, however, very interested in their matching algorithm, and have spent hours … Continue reading
More on Dating and Value
I’ve been thinking a lot about value and dating since my recent post on the subject. Today’s post is going to be a little different than my normal presentation of facts. Instead, I’m going to talk about what I feel is an interesting (and potentially frustrating) change in dating/mating dynamics. Through most of human history, … Continue reading
Dating and Value
As regular readers of my blog are aware, dating (mating) for humans is a competition. Men are competing with other men for the affection of available women, and women are competing with other women for advances from available men. The thing is, men and women are also competing. Dating and marriage/commitment are negotiated contracts, and … Continue reading
Dating, Mating, Sex, and Reproduction Part 1: What do Women Want?
Describing Humans The science of human nature lagged behind other hard sciences for most of the 20th century. There were several reasons for this. There was considerable resistance from the religious, who were still reeling from the widespread acceptance of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection. To them, quantifying human animals as if they … Continue reading
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