Christian Rudder

I definitely try to live more by intuition and just... Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I think just getting back to this like perfect love algorithm or whatever, like I just, I genuinely think that's impossible to create a computer program that's going to predict with any real defensible set of certainty, like...

I definitely try to live more by intuition and just... Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I think just getting back to this like perfect love algorithm or whatever, like I just, I genuinely think that's impossible to create a computer program that's going to predict with any real defensible set of certainty, like...

Who person A is, which of all the person Bs out there, who A is going to love, you know? I still don't think it's possible. And I think there's just a lot more to life. I mean, hopefully for, you know, maybe for not that much longer, but like than like a phone or whatever, you know, and the internet for sure. And so I just, I really try to...

Who person A is, which of all the person Bs out there, who A is going to love, you know? I still don't think it's possible. And I think there's just a lot more to life. I mean, hopefully for, you know, maybe for not that much longer, but like than like a phone or whatever, you know, and the internet for sure. And so I just, I really try to...

Honestly, I am one of those tech people who try to stay away from all of that stuff. I like the ability of data to tell stories. I was actually just working with my child on an assignment about the Beatles evolution as songwriters. And we have Hard Day's Night from 64, Sgt. Pepper 67, Abbey Road 69. And you can actually go through and see in the data of the songs how...

Honestly, I am one of those tech people who try to stay away from all of that stuff. I like the ability of data to tell stories. I was actually just working with my child on an assignment about the Beatles evolution as songwriters. And we have Hard Day's Night from 64, Sgt. Pepper 67, Abbey Road 69. And you can actually go through and see in the data of the songs how...

how they've grown, how they grew as songwriters and just looking at the complexity of the instrumentation and the chord changes and you can actually quantify. It was like a little mini dataclism. It was fun to do. So I do enjoy that stuff.

how they've grown, how they grew as songwriters and just looking at the complexity of the instrumentation and the chord changes and you can actually quantify. It was like a little mini dataclism. It was fun to do. So I do enjoy that stuff.

But back to one of your points, like I think you can be overly certain about a lot of things if you're just looking at numbers because numbers aren't very subtle, right? They're just sort of facts that can be easily compared and you can decide which one is bigger or better or whatever it is.

But back to one of your points, like I think you can be overly certain about a lot of things if you're just looking at numbers because numbers aren't very subtle, right? They're just sort of facts that can be easily compared and you can decide which one is bigger or better or whatever it is.

But so little in life can actually be quantified down to a number, like outside of the world of sports, right? You know, you can try and you can pretend that like a 9.3 really captures how attractive someone is. But we all know that's not really true, right? Like two 9.3s, there's going to be a different opinion from every person that sees these two theoretically identical people, right?

But so little in life can actually be quantified down to a number, like outside of the world of sports, right? You know, you can try and you can pretend that like a 9.3 really captures how attractive someone is. But we all know that's not really true, right? Like two 9.3s, there's going to be a different opinion from every person that sees these two theoretically identical people, right?

So I just, yeah, I think that's, I also try to stay away from that, from data for that sense of the false sense of certainty about things. Okay.

So I just, yeah, I think that's, I also try to stay away from that, from data for that sense of the false sense of certainty about things. Okay.

You know, and I guess there was like that period, 2009, 2010, where data seemed revelatory. And this is pre-Cambridge Analytica and the whole kind of engineering of the first Trump candidacy and the big news and all of that stuff. And it was like, it sounds corny, it was like a hopeful period, I guess, for the internet. You know, there was like Airbnb. Yeah.

You know, and I guess there was like that period, 2009, 2010, where data seemed revelatory. And this is pre-Cambridge Analytica and the whole kind of engineering of the first Trump candidacy and the big news and all of that stuff. And it was like, it sounds corny, it was like a hopeful period, I guess, for the internet. You know, there was like Airbnb. Yeah.

Uber, you mean I can just get a car and I don't have to like wait 20 minutes? You know what I mean? Like that whole vibe, especially in New York, it's just different. Yeah. So we had all this data. We thought it was really interesting about what people thought was attractive, about how different races would interact on our website or our app. And we kind of didn't have anything to lose either.

Uber, you mean I can just get a car and I don't have to like wait 20 minutes? You know what I mean? Like that whole vibe, especially in New York, it's just different. Yeah. So we had all this data. We thought it was really interesting about what people thought was attractive, about how different races would interact on our website or our app. And we kind of didn't have anything to lose either.

We were just like, all right, let's just do this. Facebook is a billion-dollar, whatever, trillion-dollar company maybe now. They obviously have a lot to lose, and they're heavily scrutinized. Yeah. In 2010, we were sort of under the radar. Online dating wasn't even remotely as cool as it is now. And obviously, it's not even that cool. So it was like mostly weird, even in 2010, you know.

We were just like, all right, let's just do this. Facebook is a billion-dollar, whatever, trillion-dollar company maybe now. They obviously have a lot to lose, and they're heavily scrutinized. Yeah. In 2010, we were sort of under the radar. Online dating wasn't even remotely as cool as it is now. And obviously, it's not even that cool. So it was like mostly weird, even in 2010, you know.