5 ms·

This reminds me of a recent NPR story-telling guest from a PhD student at UCLA who hacked one of the major dating apps (match or eharmony?) matching algorithm a

This reminds me of a recent NPR story-telling guest from a PhD student at UCLA who hacked one of the major dating apps (match or eharmony?) matching algorithm and he was going into detail of his exploits; he used the Lab to run tons of simulations of desirable answers to the profile questions to garner the attention of women in his surrounding area and on the site internationally. In the process revealing how erroneously so many put stock in matching via a system with a very clearly vulnerable system (compatibility rating algorithm) and went out of his way to optimize the system further with less than desirable results: he was the most desired Male profile and was going out on several dates a day and rejecting women he'd have coffee dates with in more and more absurd ways as he got more and more requests. It was really funny, albeit cautionary, and I only caught like 65% of it, so if anyone finds it can you post it here? Jack Dorsey's recent interview on the AI podcast hinted at how perilous this could be, too. The 'why' part of Machine learning/data Science/AI has to be just as tightly examined as the optimization development when deployed into Society.

lordgrenville 7y ago
Probably this? https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates And here's an article https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/ https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/
- croissants 7y ago
  Not to throw this into standard male internet complaining about dating, but it's funny that the Wired article waits until almost the end to mention that the dude is over six feet tall with blue eyes (and per the photo at the beginning, not bad-looking!). I wonder if this kind of gaming would have worked if he wasn't already in a highly desired male demographic. It's possible that just being noticed is a big marginal benefit when you're already in that demographic.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - globular-toast 7y ago
    Of course it wouldn't. Why would women suddenly find a man attractive just because some app brings up a match? The matching algorithms are not there to show you who you find attractive, they are there to filter out the 95% (for women), or 50% (for men) of people you definitely don't find attractive.
    - ses1984 7y ago
      If 95% of women reject your profile, would you get more matches if your profile was in front of 10 women or 10,000?
      - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
        The trouble is it's not "95% of women reject your profile" but rather "women reject 95% of profiles" -- which is something else entirely.
      - MagnumOpus 7y ago
        Generally it’s not 95% of women rejecting a given profile, but all women (or near enough to make no difference) rejecting mostly the same 95% of profiles and not rejecting the rest. I.e. boosting visibility probably brings proportionate benefits to the most desirable men, but little additional benefit to the ugly/short/older guy.
        whatshisface 7y ago
        Source? With 51.5% of American men presently married I have a hard time believing 95% of men are consistently rejected by every woman!
        chongli 7y ago
        It’s 95% of the men on dating apps, not 95% of all men. The men who get married presumably delete their profile. It’s not hard to see that all of the gold had already been panned out and there’s nothing left but mud (in the eyes of the women on those dating apps).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- _theory_ 7y ago
  This was fascinating all around - both for the means by which he optimized OKCupid for himself, and for the the insights about women that it yielded. He was able to type women in to 7 clusters, but that 7th cluster ('diverse') could have been optimized into further groups, it seems.
- Melting_Harps 7y ago
  > Probably this? https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates That's it, I was really hoping to hear this in its entirety but could never find it: thanks!
Balgair 7y ago
Yes! The thing was that he only got 3 second dates and 1 third date. In the end, he gave up and found love the way the algos intended; she messaged him. The conclusion I took was that the math worked. His gaming the systems was pointless, he needed patience more than anything.
arkanciscan 7y ago
I did this on OkCupid just by answering common questions in the most common way. But more dates isn't really the point, at least not for me. So I weighted the questions in the way they mattered to me and I met my current gf. Cheaters only cheat themselves.
- asdkhadsj 7y ago
  Yup, met my wife this way too (OkCupid as well). I in general was very upfront. I didn't try to sell myself much, which meant my flaws in interaction were present too. I didn't like the idea of wasting time with people I'd slowly push away as I let my crafted guard down.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

lordgrenville 7y ago

Probably this? https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates And here's an article https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/ https://www.wired.com/2014/01/how-to-hack-okcupid/

croissants 7y ago
Not to throw this into standard male internet complaining about dating, but it's funny that the Wired article waits until almost the end to mention that the dude is over six feet tall with blue eyes (and per the photo at the beginning, not bad-looking!). I wonder if this kind of gaming would have worked if he wasn't already in a highly desired male demographic. It's possible that just being noticed is a big marginal benefit when you're already in that demographic.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- globular-toast 7y ago
  Of course it wouldn't. Why would women suddenly find a man attractive just because some app brings up a match? The matching algorithms are not there to show you who you find attractive, they are there to filter out the 95% (for women), or 50% (for men) of people you definitely don't find attractive.
  - ses1984 7y ago
    If 95% of women reject your profile, would you get more matches if your profile was in front of 10 women or 10,000?
    - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
      The trouble is it's not "95% of women reject your profile" but rather "women reject 95% of profiles" -- which is something else entirely.
    - MagnumOpus 7y ago
      Generally it’s not 95% of women rejecting a given profile, but all women (or near enough to make no difference) rejecting mostly the same 95% of profiles and not rejecting the rest. I.e. boosting visibility probably brings proportionate benefits to the most desirable men, but little additional benefit to the ugly/short/older guy.
      - whatshisface 7y ago
        Source? With 51.5% of American men presently married I have a hard time believing 95% of men are consistently rejected by every woman!
        chongli 7y ago
        It’s 95% of the men on dating apps, not 95% of all men. The men who get married presumably delete their profile. It’s not hard to see that all of the gold had already been panned out and there’s nothing left but mud (in the eyes of the women on those dating apps).
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
_theory_ 7y ago
This was fascinating all around - both for the means by which he optimized OKCupid for himself, and for the the insights about women that it yielded. He was able to type women in to 7 clusters, but that 7th cluster ('diverse') could have been optimized into further groups, it seems.
Melting_Harps 7y ago
> Probably this? https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates https://themoth.org/stories/data-mining-for-dates That's it, I was really hoping to hear this in its entirety but could never find it: thanks!

Balgair 7y ago

Yes! The thing was that he only got 3 second dates and 1 third date. In the end, he gave up and found love the way the algos intended; she messaged him. The conclusion I took was that the math worked. His gaming the systems was pointless, he needed patience more than anything.

arkanciscan 7y ago

I did this on OkCupid just by answering common questions in the most common way. But more dates isn't really the point, at least not for me. So I weighted the questions in the way they mattered to me and I met my current gf. Cheaters only cheat themselves.

asdkhadsj 7y ago
Yup, met my wife this way too (OkCupid as well). I in general was very upfront. I didn't try to sell myself much, which meant my flaws in interaction were present too. I didn't like the idea of wasting time with people I'd slowly push away as I let my crafted guard down.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]