Never tell me the Odds

I love maths. I'm no good at it mind you, but I love the idea of a very pure and ordered form of science that can describe the world around us, even the natural world in all its chaotic beauty.  But you know, sometimes there might be a time when you want to leave the text books at home.

A 31 year old, advanced grad student in Economics at the University of Warwick made the dismaying discovery that his chances of finding love were rather small.  Not just unlikely.... but... well, astronomically infinitesimal. He doesn't have particularly tough criteria either, he's not a picky lad.  She just needs to be based in London, aged between 24-34, and have a university education. That's not much really, is it?...   no 'blonde with big tits', or 'must have read all the volumes of Shakespeare as well as be a 34D'.  I think that should be doable, don't you?  

Being very realistic, he estimates he would be attracted to about 5% of the women that meet this criteria. Fair enough. That seems pretty true to life... after all, you have to have that spark of chemistry don't you?  Anyway - with that in mind he calculated that leaves 10,500 women in Britain that fit the bill.... just 0.14 percent of Londoners in fact.

In my experience women are usually much more picky than men, but if the women are the only the same as he is, that means his chances of meeting this dream girl is now down to 0.00034 percent, according to our lovelorn teaching fellow. Oh dear.  What are the chances he might meet one of those 26 women on a night down at the local over a pint then? It's best we walk away now and don't look back. This is stuff of poetry and country music, my friends.

So - in cases of the heart, my advice is, don't over analyse these things. After all, even people who are simply looking for someone with a heartbeat, and believe they have found 'it', can still end up on the emotional scrapheap. As Han Solo said 'never tell me the odds'.

p.s.  If you'd like to find out what happens to our Romeo - read the end of the story

2 comments:

  Anonymous

1/20/10, 2:49 PM

And he finds a girl living next door to him. I think the flawed notion there is the notion of love, as if it is a perfect ideal with only one path to it.

  jude

1/20/10, 2:56 PM

Very very true ;)

Just like this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KynIKjRwqDI

 


The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism