I'll give the guy credit for coming up with a creative idea [1], but for a guy who was overly concerned with efficiency, going on 55 first dates and only 3 second dates strikes me as absolutely insane and a waste of time. It would be similar to having 55 in-person interviews and only making 3 offers. Something is going wrong in the funnel.
I don't see how his system was better than just using the site as it is intended, nor do I think it should be romanticized as much as it is in this article.
[1]: Though it fails the categorical imperative. If everybody did this okcupid would be much worse off.
Those numbers didn't surprise me - in my online dating marathon, not aided by big data, I had roughly 100 first dates and less than a dozen second dates, before meeting my now-wife (via okcupid).
Hard to say the process didn't improve things for him, though - maybe he's distinct enough that compatibility for him is more rare than average.
This is a little bit off topic, but although I agree that [1] does fail the categorical imperative, it isn't because "If everybody did this okcupid would be much worse off."
The categorical imperative is not a consequentialist motivation. It doesn't say, "Don't do X if doing so would make Y worse off."
I don't see how his system was better than just using the site as it is intended, nor do I think it should be romanticized as much as it is in this article.
[1]: Though it fails the categorical imperative. If everybody did this okcupid would be much worse off.