Dataclysm: Insights from an OkCupid Cofounder
Published on October 8, 2014
OkCupid is one of the higher quality free dating services out there. It was created by very passionate people who were genuinely excited to craft the perfect algorithm for matching couples. Of course we all know there’s no such thing as a magic formula to find the right person for us, but with the huge pool of people trying online dating, it sure doesn’t hurt to be able to narrow down the options with decent accuracy. Coupled with a nicely polished website and creative features, OkCupid has been many people’s first dip in the online dating waters for many years.
We tend to encourage our readers to try multiple services including paid ones if they are serious about finding success with online dating. Each service will naturally have a slightly different user base and you don’t want to miss out on a large group of people just because you always stuck with only one service. In addition, each service offers its own unique features and approach to help connect people and you may find that one is a much better fit for your personality than another. Paid services also usually have more users serious about finding success with online dating, just by virtue of the fact that they don’t want to see their money wasted.
With all that said though, OkCupid has always remained a very high quality option. One of its best assets in the early years was its blog, OkTrends. Here, the OkCupid team would post insights and analysis they observed on their dating service, much of which delved very deeply into the human psyche and shed light on behaviors and patterns we all see in social behavior. If you like to crunch numbers or just have a genuine curiosity of what makes us tick, the blog was a very entertaining read and may have even provided you some useful tips to finding success in your dating endeavors.
Unfortunately, in 2011 the blog stopped updating with new content, until this past summer. It’s now back online, and it turns out over that time OkCupid cofounder Christian Rudder was compiling the information and expanding it into a book, now available on Amazon. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking)
I wouldn’t expect this book to revolutionize your approach to socializing and dating overnight. But, if you’re looking for a fun read, and maybe a few insights that will make you take a step back and consider aspects of yourself and your relationships, I definitely recommend it. You will likely find quite a few things about what the opposite sex tends to prefer or how they react to certain actions or situations, and it just might be the thing you need to make a few positive changes to your approach, or to help you better understand what it is you’re looking for. If you feel like you’re always going after the wrong person or get disinterested when you shouldn’t be, or maybe just experiencing frustration with a certain aspect of dating, this book’s wisdom could be a great place to start. Even if not, you will surely learn a lot and be entertained in the process – the OkCupid staff’s writing style has always been witty and amusing.
The book’s currently selling for $6.99 on Kindle or $16 for a dead-tree copy, which is a low price to pay for this kind of analysis and insight straight from the horse’s mouth. The horse, in this case, being the cofounder of one of the most successful free dating websites on the internet. Not a bad way to spend a Hamilton and a Sunday afternoon.
Author: Randy
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