advice file #1: don’t get depressed, just run the numbers!

I’ve watched a fair number of friends use online dating sites, and I’ve been through a couple of rounds of internet dating myself. I’ve noticed e-dating often makes other people depressed, while it doesn’t have that effect on me. In case you’re one of the depressive-types, here’s my recipe for maximizing both the chances for a successful result and the enjoyment of the process.

I think the key to effective, efficient, and fun e-dating is to use technology for what it is good for, and humans (the best computers ever built!) for what humans are good for. That is, use whatever dating site you choose to identify *lots* of potentially interesting people, and then meet. And then don’t get sucked into hanging around if you don’t really hit it off.  (I’m always puzzled by people who do this.) What e-dating is good for is efficiency (like capitalism!). And what it *isn’t* good for is managing that much more complex human side (like capitalism!).  :-) So set up lots and lots of 1 hr coffee dates (avoid dinners and longer activities – too much time investment). And then try to be as authentically you as you can in that hour (observing normal social protocol, of course) and then don’t take it personally if that person doesn’t seem to like who you are. In fact, see that as a victory!! One more mistake avoided!! Woo hoo, one down, two million, five thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven to go!  You don’t have to get as excited about the “failures” as I do, (I suspect I’m  a deviant at the far side of the distribution on that one) but you get the idea. Numbers game. That’s it. Just a numbers game.

so I don’t bore my friends to death…

Okay. I give. I’ll do it. I’ll blog my adventures on the e-dating scene and save my friends from having to listen, and listen, and listen, to my stories. Ah, the stories. What an odd adventure, this modern form of match-making. For now, to bed. But soon, dear reader, soon, you can read all about it.