介绍:
Lincoln: Now, a man has made a ratings scale about texting responding speed in order to choose a girlfriend. Now, Wu You, can you elaborate on that a little bit?
WY: The man worked as an actuary. He thought that he might need help, especially in finding out if a girl is really interested in him. He made this kind of ratings scale.
Lincoln: OK, and he posted it online?
WY: Yes, [he did]. He has made a mark sheet and a ratings scale about girls’ reactions to him, to test if she is really interested in him. The sheet is really complicated, but let’s take one category as an example. So, one section is called text messages. He made this marking sheet to see if she responded [to] the text messages quickly enough. If the girl quickly responded [to] the text message, she can get three points. If she responded after half an hour, two points; after an hour, one point; after 12 hours, minus one point; no response, minus five points.
Michael: I think this guys’ missing the point, quite spectacularly, of having a girlfriend. I think if you have to come up with an algorithm and a spreadsheet in order to find a girlfriend, maybe you haven’t quite got the right end of the stick when it comes to the fairer sex.
Lincoln: Yeah, it’s quite strange, I think.
Michael: If he finds a girl who ticks all the boxes and gets the most points, or whatever, when they go on a date, is he going to tell her that he picked her largely on the basis of having fulfilled all his spreadsheet requirements?
Lincoln: “Well, darling, as you sit across from me, I can see that you’re actually on six, six points, which is better than someone else, who’s only on five points. If you continue to do this quite well, you will be allowed to have a second date.” But he might take minus off. I would love if he let you know, if he actually let’s the woman know exactly what her score is, because I feel like he might find himself dateless, as it were.
WY: But actually, when you’re talking about if he meets a girl, he also keeps points on other things. He will keep in mind what the girl wore when they met, and [whether] the girl put on any makeup, and the number of sentences the girl said on that day, and how many times the girl laughed when they met, and all of these will also be given marks on his rating scale.
Lincoln: One of the things about this is it assumes, or presumes that he is the perfect one. All of his actions… the women’s actions are only relevant to his actions, or relative to his actions, so I think that might actually indicate a lack of self-awareness there, Michael.
Michael: I actually think the more I’m thinking about this, the more I quite like this guy. Yeah, I’m just reading this a little more. When you send a text message to a girl that you like, it’s true that the quicker she responds, the more likely she is to be into you, and the more this potential relationship has legs, and I’m reading another one here which says if she sends messages at night, the scores are higher; if she sends a message asking about going for a movie, or going for dinner, that’s also quite a high score, or if she’s just messaging about something boring like work, then the score is lower, and I think there’s some method behind this madness.
WY: He gave his reason that he believes all these are reasonable, and he says that he gathered lots of information online about love [and] relationship experiences. They are both from online information or other people. He also said that if he thinks that the girl is really nice, but he has no idea if she likes him or not, so he is afraid of failure, so he thinks this could be a better way to count it. I can totally understand him. It’s just maybe a lack of confidence. He meant it. I mean, he has a pure heart, so maybe he needs a helping hand.
Lincoln: Ah, he’s afraid of failure! You can’t do that, mate. You’ve got to put yourself out there.
