full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Amy Webb: How I hacked online dating

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Well, one month later, I had a lot of data, and I was able to do another analysis. And as it tnrus out, cnetont mtetras a lot. So smart people tend to write a lot -- 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 words about themselves, which may all be very, very interesting. The challenge here, though, is that the popular men and women are sticking to 97 words on average that are written very, very well, even though it may not seem like it all the time. The other hamrllak of the people who do this well is that they're using non-specific language. So in my case, "The English Patient" is my most favorite movie ever, but it doesn't work to use that in a profile, because that's a siiaefcprul data point, and somebody may disagree and decide they don't want to go out because they didn't like snittig through the three-hour movie.

Open Cloze

Well, one month later, I had a lot of data, and I was able to do another analysis. And as it _____ out, _______ _______ a lot. So smart people tend to write a lot -- 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 words about themselves, which may all be very, very interesting. The challenge here, though, is that the popular men and women are sticking to 97 words on average that are written very, very well, even though it may not seem like it all the time. The other ________ of the people who do this well is that they're using non-specific language. So in my case, "The English Patient" is my most favorite movie ever, but it doesn't work to use that in a profile, because that's a ___________ data point, and somebody may disagree and decide they don't want to go out because they didn't like _______ through the three-hour movie.

Solution

  1. superficial
  2. matters
  3. hallmark
  4. sitting
  5. content
  6. turns

Original Text

Well, one month later, I had a lot of data, and I was able to do another analysis. And as it turns out, content matters a lot. So smart people tend to write a lot -- 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 words about themselves, which may all be very, very interesting. The challenge here, though, is that the popular men and women are sticking to 97 words on average that are written very, very well, even though it may not seem like it all the time. The other hallmark of the people who do this well is that they're using non-specific language. So in my case, "The English Patient" is my most favorite movie ever, but it doesn't work to use that in a profile, because that's a superficial data point, and somebody may disagree and decide they don't want to go out because they didn't like sitting through the three-hour movie.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
online dating 3
biggest problem 2
data points 2
superficial data 2
coffee shop 2

Important Words

  1. analysis
  2. average
  3. case
  4. challenge
  5. content
  6. data
  7. decide
  8. disagree
  9. english
  10. favorite
  11. hallmark
  12. interesting
  13. language
  14. lot
  15. matters
  16. men
  17. month
  18. movie
  19. people
  20. point
  21. popular
  22. profile
  23. sitting
  24. smart
  25. sticking
  26. superficial
  27. tend
  28. time
  29. turns
  30. women
  31. words
  32. work
  33. write
  34. written