eLove to the Max

{link » Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, ...}

“You will maximize your probability of finding the best spouse if you date about 37% of the available candidates in your life, and then choose to stay with the next candidate who is better than all previous ones [whom you had rejected].”

Not intuitive; nor romantic; but mathematically correct (as shown in books on probability). The 37% corresponds to the probability 1/e, where e is defined as the base of the natural logarithm whose numerical value (to 5 decimal places) is 2.71828. A plausibility argument goes something like this:

Suppose you go about finding a mate in this manner, which, I am told, most geeks actually do. You estimate a priori that you will have the opportunity to meet 100 women during your courting years (heterosexual geeks are overwhelmingly of the male persuasion). Needless to say, you are an optimist (and quite possibly an optometrist). If you propose to the first woman you meet, who, it goes without saying, accepts your proposal, your chances of having found your soul mate are 1%.

At the other extreme, if you reject the first 99 women (just for the sake of argument) and, therefore, you must propose to your 100th date (for by then you will have exhausted your expected allotment of female candidates, as well as the patience of the entire female gender), your chances for happiness are likewise 1%. It stands to reason that a proposal to some intermediate candidate stands a better than 1% chance for marital bliss, because you will have chosen a woman who suited you better than all those you had previously rejected.

It only remains to calculate what front-end fraction of your questing you must reject, so as to maximize the probability of finding your "holy grail", as it were. This calculation has already been developed by mathematicians, as discussed above, to wit: reject the first 37 women and propose to the very next one who exceeds the charms of all her predecessors.

Please note that this strategy does not guarantee a mate will be found! It only maximizes the a priori probability of finding your best one, in accordance with your own criteria. Your mileage may vary.