Why the Perfect Gal/Guy is hard to find?

To my young friends who's below Ted Mosby's age,

Many a times, we complain that there's no perfect girl (or guy) for us, and that they exist only in stories. Well, it's true. To know why this is true, read further.

Note: This is a mathematical analysis of why it is so hard to find the Perfect Girl (or Guy). However, it's not so tough, if you've some background in probability.

List down all the attributes that you see in your perfect girl. Taking my example, here's a list for the perfect girl, in no particular order. (Girls can follow the same exercise too).

1. She is cute
2. She is kind
3. She has beautiful eyes
4. She is intelligent
5. She is caring
6. She is smart
7. She is highly educated (at least a master's degree)
8. She is sexy
9. She is innocent but not so innocent as to be stupid
10. She is tall but not taller than me
11. She has a great sense of humor which match my type of humor
12. She comes from a good family
13. She belongs to one of Zodiac sign - Pisces/Scorpio/Taurus/Virgo
14. She is elegant
15. She can hold a witty, intelligent conversation with me for hours
16. We speak a common language
17. She is independent
18. She has read "Lord of the Rings" and enjoyed it
19. She has read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and enjoyed it
20. She has heard of Terry Pratchett
21. She loves music
22. She loves movies
23. Pink Floyd is one of her favorite band
24. She is a Star Wars fan
25. She loves Dilbert, and/or Calvin Hobbes
26. She loves dogs
27. She likes the rain
28. She likes flowers
29. She is not cynical about love
30. She likes art, and loves to paint/sing/dance/photograph/write.

Now, consider this. The probability of each attribute finding in a girl is 1/2. (Ask yourself if the girl has the attribute or not. The answer is yes/no. I mean, you either find a girl cute or not, there's no middle part).

Now, all these attributes are independent. So, the probability of meeting your perfect girl is a whooping (1/2)^30 or 1/1.07 billion.

Considering that the world's population is currently at 6.6 billion, and considering 50% of these are women, and of these, 50% are eligible, and in the correct age range (+5, -10 years), and considering life expectancy is 75 years and that women's ages are distributed uniformly, the universe of women where you'll find the perfect one is

50%*50%*20%*6.6 billion, or, 320 millions

Now, multiply the probability of finding the perfect girl with the universe of eligible women, and it becomes

1/1.07billion * 320 millions = 0.3

So, if you've around 30 attributes that you seek in your perfect girl, you'll find only 0.3 eligible girls in the entire world, and since girls come as wholes, that number just goes down to 0 (zero), or impossible.

But the good news is, if you can reduce the attributes to just 20, the number of eligible girls improves to 305, still a very small. If you can further reduce down the attribute to 15, your chances improve to 9765. However, if you restrict the attributes to 10, it is a dramatic improvement to 312,500 girls, and with 5 only, it is 10,000,000 girls.

The point is not to stop looking for the Perfect Girl, but to rather limit the attributes that you look in a girl to a very very small but important ones to improve your chance.

So, when someone asks me (again) what I look in my Perfect Girl, here it is...

1. She has beautiful eyes

2. She is caring

3. We speak a common language

4. She is innocent but not to the point of stupidity

5. She can hold a witty, intelligent conversation with me

6. She is cute

(If you're wondering how many girls exist, according to my calculation, it is 5,000,000).

My point is, my young friends, lower your expectation and you'll see lots more eligible girls than you think.

Ciao,

Bij