Physical attractiveness far outweighs other traits in online dating success

This seems like an inefficiency to solve, though maybe it definitionally can’t be solved online?

And I mean this in a hopeful way: All the time when I out and about and thinking about this problem, I see so many mediocre looking couples out there that seem happy. In fact, looking at my dating history, I would not make a direct correlation between say, being my “type” and relationship success.

I remember when I was in high school, my (notably single) friends made fun of this girl I was dating because she had a funky tooth, and I remember having the wherewithal to think to myself, who cares, she’s fun and makes me happy.

I think generally speaking the internet has really done us a disservice in making us think if we don’t have the ideal life we won’t be happy, when often the opposite is true, being fully engaged with a normal life is the true route to happiness for most people.

There’s also, I don’t know how to describe it, but fundamentally sad about the idea that mediocre people shouldn't be loved, I think what makes it really sad, is not what it says about other people, but what it says about the person who believes that.

This would suggest that one get serious about dating sooner rather than later.