Maybe, all those bad dates are your fault? Credit: Anderson Ross.
This might be one of those things you want to chalk up to an excuse for lousy prospects that makes you feel good about watching Battlestar Galactica alone on a Friday night.
Dr. Alex Benzer, author of the Tao of Dating, thinks his problem is his brains, and he wrote the book about the similar problems he found among the geniuses at Harvard.
What the hell. I'll bite. Sure makes me feel better than admitting my social awkwardness.
- Smart people spent more time on achievements than on relationships when growing up.
- Smart people feel that they're entitled to love because of their achievements.
- You don't feel like a fully-realized sexual being, and therefore don't act like one.
- You're exceptionally talented at getting in the way of your own romantic success.
- By virtue (or vice) of being smart, you eliminate most of the planet's inhabitants as a dating prospect
Since The Underground has a bad habit of giving it to people straight (that's why we're not in the mainstream), we've come up with a list of our own for why you might not be hooking up as much as you'd like.
- Personal hygiene: Do you bathe regularly? Brush your teeth? Shave? When was the last time you got a haircut?
- You're ugly: This one actually jibes well with Dr. Benzer's #5 -- perhaps, by virtue of the fact that you have been cursed with bad genes in the looks department, you eliminate most of the planet's inhabitants as a dating prospect?
- Have you asked? I have found that the frequency of my friend's dates have been directly proportional to how often they speak to the opposite sex.
- You don't get out much: You can't meet people watching TV.
- Lower your standards: Odds are, the people you meet don't think you're quite the catch you think you are, so try lowering your standards a peg or two. If you're lucky, he/she will, too.
The Underground doesn't lie to you. Even when they should.
Comments
I've been out of the dating market for the past 27 years, so I cannot offer insights from personal experience. I recall reading in Lori Gottlieb's article "How Do i Love Thee" in the March 2006 Atlantic Monthly that eharmony admits a low success rate with people whose IQs are higher than 120 because there are too few of them and because their likes and dislikes are too complicated/nuanced for eharmony's simplistic matching computer program. Smart people might have greater success using specialized dating sites such as those for Mensa members or alumni and faculty of Ivy League and other highly competitive universities. My recently divorced brother reports that OKCupid dot com also attracts more intelligent and unconventional/nonconformist daters.
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