I've heard the claim that meeting people in shared hobbies is better because they're more likely to be compatible, extremely so, more than enough to overcome the other advantages of online dating. How do you evaluate that sort of thing? It seems hard to quantify.
Meeting people in shared hobbies is better is like saying being born rich is better - it's true, but you can't really work on it and improve. There are three possible options here.
1. People who are naturally drawn to mixed-gender stuff like dancing and acting classes already have met compatible people there and therefore don't need dating advice of this sort.
2. If your hobbies are heavily gender-skewed or solitary like MtG or programming, you will have a lot of trouble finding potential compatible partners, and any woman you find will be swamped with suitors.
3. Alternatively, you can try to find yourself a new hobby outside your niche - which means you're less likely to be compatible with people there, since you're only doing the hobby to pick up girls, not because you're really into it. It's the common problem with "go to a dancing class" type of advice, and people there can tell what you're really looking for.
And this is not even touching the issue that hobbies are not a great predictor of compatibility - there is stuff like personality which is more important than what you're into, and plenty of happy couples don't have the same interests.
Perhaps you could get involved in something that you're interested in, but aren't already doing for whatever reason? Or perhaps you could try a new hobby outside your niche, and it turns out you genuinely enjoy it?
Sure, trying new hobbies is a good thing to do, but it's not a dating advice, it's just good life advice. You could as well suggest getting higher education as a dating strategy - people meet partners there as much as in hobbies. When you're searching for a partner, ideally you would use as many modalities to socialize and meet new people as you can afford - including dating apps.
https://rgonstuff.substack.com/p/beyond-optimized-dating
I've heard the claim that meeting people in shared hobbies is better because they're more likely to be compatible, extremely so, more than enough to overcome the other advantages of online dating. How do you evaluate that sort of thing? It seems hard to quantify.
Meeting people in shared hobbies is better is like saying being born rich is better - it's true, but you can't really work on it and improve. There are three possible options here.
1. People who are naturally drawn to mixed-gender stuff like dancing and acting classes already have met compatible people there and therefore don't need dating advice of this sort.
2. If your hobbies are heavily gender-skewed or solitary like MtG or programming, you will have a lot of trouble finding potential compatible partners, and any woman you find will be swamped with suitors.
3. Alternatively, you can try to find yourself a new hobby outside your niche - which means you're less likely to be compatible with people there, since you're only doing the hobby to pick up girls, not because you're really into it. It's the common problem with "go to a dancing class" type of advice, and people there can tell what you're really looking for.
And this is not even touching the issue that hobbies are not a great predictor of compatibility - there is stuff like personality which is more important than what you're into, and plenty of happy couples don't have the same interests.
Perhaps you could get involved in something that you're interested in, but aren't already doing for whatever reason? Or perhaps you could try a new hobby outside your niche, and it turns out you genuinely enjoy it?
Sure, trying new hobbies is a good thing to do, but it's not a dating advice, it's just good life advice. You could as well suggest getting higher education as a dating strategy - people meet partners there as much as in hobbies. When you're searching for a partner, ideally you would use as many modalities to socialize and meet new people as you can afford - including dating apps.