119 How one woman hacked online dating to find the perfect partner

Quantitative futurist Amy Webb was fed up with online dating in 2005. The questionnaires and algorithms on sites like Match and OKcupid that were supposed to connect like-minded people and form lasting relationships yielded nothing but duds and disastrous dates. Despite advice from family and friends to cast a wider net, Webb did the opposite: she became even more picky. She created a long list of dating criteria and narrowed the pool of singles down using a complex scoring system. Then, she used competitive data sets from other female profiles to optimize her own. Through this “market research,” she inadvertently became the site’s most popular dating profile. Now, highly desirable and extremely picky, her data zeroed in on a single man from Baltimore. Spoiler Alert: They are happily married with children to this day. Alli and Jen talk with Webb about how she hacked dating algorithms to find the man of her dreams, the TED Talk and book about her experience that divided the internet, and the adorable (and nerve-wracking!) story of her final first date. Follow Amy Webb: https://twitter.com/amywebb DATA: A Love Story: https://amzn.to/386hXVC How I Hacked Online Dating (TED Talk): https://youtu.be/d6wG_sAdP0U ... If you're in Los Angeles on February 13th, come see Alli perform live in HOW TO BREAK UP BY TEXT. You can also submit screenshots of your own text breakups to be included in the show! Go here for tickets and submission info: https://www.howtobreakupbytext.com, or text your break-ups to: 818-392-4759 ... This week on 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST, Alli and Jen talk with Webb about how she hacked dating algorithms to find the man of her dreams, the TED Talk and book about her experience that divided the internet, and the adorable (and nerve-wracking!) story of her final first date. Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1p Email us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.com Talk to Alli and Jen: https://twitter.com/alligold https://twitter.com/joonbugger Call the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices