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WIRED – The billionaire investor Warren Buffett refers to marriage as "the most important decision that you make." And yet people have rarely turned to science for help. Truth be told, science has had little help to offer. A few years ago, a young scientist Samantha Joel was interested in what predicts successful relationships. She teamed up with 85 of the world's most renowned scientists, combined data from 43 studies, mined hundreds of variables, and utilized state-of-the-art machine learning models. Her number one lesson was "how unpredictable relationships seem to be." Demographics, preferences, and values of two people had surprisingly little power in predicting whether those two people were happy in a romantic relationship. No algorithm in the world can predict whether two people will end up happy together. According to researchers, a person who is happy outside their relationship is far more likely to be happy inside their relationship. "Nobody can make you happy until you're happy with yourself first." Good romantic partners are difficult to predict with data. Desired romantic partners are easy to predict with data. And that suggests that many of us are dating all wrong. In the dating market, people compete ferociously for mates with qualities that do not increase one's chances of romantic happiness.

by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
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