Since you’ve mentioned you’re also interested in non-romantic relationships, I (late 20s M) have been casual dating on Tinder for four years. I tend to select my matches based on how attractive they look to me. Most of my dates are students in humanities or arts, service workers, or working professionals in non-STEM fields such as hospitality or translation. Programmers, models and blue collar workers are rarer.
On the first date I typically start with FORD smalltalk topics (family, occupation, recreation, dreams). I discovered that this approach doesn’t always need to be boring—I can ask my date about what would she do with a billion dollars, or tell her about the time my organoid kidneys got transformed into beating hearts during my PhD research. This prompt often leads my date to ask: “you’re not going to steal my kidneys, are you?”, to which I reply: “I’m the least likely person to do this—if I need some, I will just grow them in my lab”.
After that we can transition into our topics of interest (that is, if we’re not making out yet by this point). Last month I invited my match on a first date to a bar where I told her about Fermi Paradox, then about AI alignment, then I asked her whether she would take hypothetical anti-aging pills, then we kissed and went to a love hotel. Two months ago, on another first date my match spent 90 minutes trying to solve a simple logical riddle, then gave up and left. I didn’t hear from her again.
Irrationality is one thing I found hard to deal with—for example when my date brings up astrology signs. At first I was very argumentative or tried to convince my date that she’s wrong, but that tends to go poorly. Nowadays I simply switch the topic to my love of astronomy, or play a little prank on my date:
“What’s your sign?”
“I don’t remember”
“Well, what’s your birth date?”
“It’s in February”
she pulls out astrological sign table
“Which day?”
“30th”
“Well you’re Pisces then”
“I’m pretty sure February 30th is not on your calendar”
sudden realization
The majority of my dates I only see once or twice, but some of them transformed into friendships or FWB-type relationships. Many of them live in other cities or abroad, but they call me up from time to time when they return to my city. We also keep contact through social media (Instagram).
I’m happy with my dating life and with people I meet—I just wish it was more frequent and less expensive. Almost all of my dates are nice and kind people, some of them can have interesting conversations or can point out my flaws and improve me. My dates also tend to drag me out of my comfort zone and give me a reason to try stuff I would never try for myself, like spontaneously flying to Amsterdam or going to a trampoline park. As for the deep discussion of rationalist-adjacent topics, I’m quite satisfied just talking about them online or with my IRL friends and coworkers.
Two months ago, on another first date my match spent 90 minutes trying to solve a simple logical riddle, then gave up and left. I didn’t hear from her again.
You are on a circular train, with carriages connecting so that they form a closed loop. There is a lightbulb in each carriage which is randomly set either on or off. You can find a switch to each lightbulb in the same carriage. You can only interact with switches and nothing else. You have infinite time, the train is not infinite but arbitrarily long. How do you determine, with 100% certainty, how many carriages are there in a loop?
I can do the following to check if the train’s length is a divisor of n. Remember the state of the lightbulb in the current carriage, then go n carriages forward and check if the state of the light is the same as remembered. If not, the train’s length is not a divisor of n. Otherwise, flip the light switch and go backwards n carriages, check the light. If it’s the same as remembered, the train’s length is not a divisor of n, otherwise it’s a divisor of n.
The overall algorithm is, for each n from 1 to infinity, perform the above steps and stop as soon as you encounter the first n such that the train’s length is a divisor of n. This n will be the train’s length.
I have a solution that involves moving back and forth across the loop. You pick a starting point, car 0, and move +1 car right and ensure the light is on, then go left to car −1 and ensure the light is off; then go to car +2: ON, car −2: off, etc.
The first time you travel more than half way around the loop, you’ll toggle a switch from the “other branch”, which you’ll then discover when you reverse. That will allow you to compute the total size of the loop.
Since you’ve mentioned you’re also interested in non-romantic relationships, I (late 20s M) have been casual dating on Tinder for four years. I tend to select my matches based on how attractive they look to me. Most of my dates are students in humanities or arts, service workers, or working professionals in non-STEM fields such as hospitality or translation. Programmers, models and blue collar workers are rarer.
On the first date I typically start with FORD smalltalk topics (family, occupation, recreation, dreams). I discovered that this approach doesn’t always need to be boring—I can ask my date about what would she do with a billion dollars, or tell her about the time my organoid kidneys got transformed into beating hearts during my PhD research. This prompt often leads my date to ask: “you’re not going to steal my kidneys, are you?”, to which I reply: “I’m the least likely person to do this—if I need some, I will just grow them in my lab”.
After that we can transition into our topics of interest (that is, if we’re not making out yet by this point). Last month I invited my match on a first date to a bar where I told her about Fermi Paradox, then about AI alignment, then I asked her whether she would take hypothetical anti-aging pills, then we kissed and went to a love hotel. Two months ago, on another first date my match spent 90 minutes trying to solve a simple logical riddle, then gave up and left. I didn’t hear from her again.
Irrationality is one thing I found hard to deal with—for example when my date brings up astrology signs. At first I was very argumentative or tried to convince my date that she’s wrong, but that tends to go poorly. Nowadays I simply switch the topic to my love of astronomy, or play a little prank on my date:
“What’s your sign?”
“I don’t remember”
“Well, what’s your birth date?”
“It’s in February”
she pulls out astrological sign table
“Which day?”
“30th”
“Well you’re Pisces then”
“I’m pretty sure February 30th is not on your calendar”
sudden realization
The majority of my dates I only see once or twice, but some of them transformed into friendships or FWB-type relationships. Many of them live in other cities or abroad, but they call me up from time to time when they return to my city. We also keep contact through social media (Instagram).
I’m happy with my dating life and with people I meet—I just wish it was more frequent and less expensive. Almost all of my dates are nice and kind people, some of them can have interesting conversations or can point out my flaws and improve me. My dates also tend to drag me out of my comfort zone and give me a reason to try stuff I would never try for myself, like spontaneously flying to Amsterdam or going to a trampoline park. As for the deep discussion of rationalist-adjacent topics, I’m quite satisfied just talking about them online or with my IRL friends and coworkers.
what was the riddle?
You are on a circular train, with carriages connecting so that they form a closed loop. There is a lightbulb in each carriage which is randomly set either on or off. You can find a switch to each lightbulb in the same carriage. You can only interact with switches and nothing else. You have infinite time, the train is not infinite but arbitrarily long. How do you determine, with 100% certainty, how many carriages are there in a loop?
Solution:
I can do the following to check if the train’s length is a divisor of n. Remember the state of the lightbulb in the current carriage, then go n carriages forward and check if the state of the light is the same as remembered. If not, the train’s length is not a divisor of n. Otherwise, flip the light switch and go backwards n carriages, check the light. If it’s the same as remembered, the train’s length is not a divisor of n, otherwise it’s a divisor of n.
The overall algorithm is, for each n from 1 to infinity, perform the above steps and stop as soon as you encounter the first n such that the train’s length is a divisor of n. This n will be the train’s length.
Well done, however it’s one of the more convoluted correct answers that I’ve seen.
I have a solution that involves moving back and forth across the loop. You pick a starting point, car 0, and move +1 car right and ensure the light is on, then go left to car −1 and ensure the light is off; then go to car +2: ON, car −2: off, etc.
The first time you travel more than half way around the loop, you’ll toggle a switch from the “other branch”, which you’ll then discover when you reverse. That will allow you to compute the total size of the loop.
Break a switch and go counting the carriages until you see it again?
I guess it works with the riddle as formulated, but the true solution has to use the actual switch function.
If the dating partner solves it, then for extra credit, have them give a solution taking time proportional to the length of the loop.