I was lucky enough to start dating my wife when I was 16 and she was 15. Obviously I can't tell much about dating, my love life was set up before online dating,

I was lucky enough to start dating my wife when I was 16 and she was 15. Obviously I can't tell much about dating, my love life was set up before online dating, however, my impression from talking to friends and family is that: 1) people expect their possible partners to be completely aligned on lots of things which don't really matter like tastes or opinions in this or that or background and education level. Having similar character, spine and the same outlook to life matters whey more. 2) sometimes they expect their partner to be a life coach, a career mentor, a doctor or lawyer or whatever - someone with answers to difficult things in life. 3) "oh if he's saying X then he definitely is like my ex": people with many past relationships may be biased and dump a good candidate just because said candidate signaled something.