Category: Love — 37
Where Calculation Ends
Economics is at its strongest where a hidden constraint needs to be found. It asks what is scarce, which information is unevenly distributed, who can refuse, onto whom the cost…
Can the Spark Be Calculated?
I tested harmony by algebra. — Alexander Pushkin, “Mozart and Salieri” The figure “94 percent” sounds more convincing than “you may well have something to talk about.” Samantha Joel, Paul…
Beauty: The Public Rating and the Private Taste
Ugliness has one advantage over beauty: it doesn’t fade with time. — Serge Gainsbourg In 1878 Francis Galton set out to obtain the face of a criminal. He took photographs…
Statistics Against Fate
The average preference among women for slightly older partners doesn’t prescribe a choice to any particular woman; a raised divorce rate under a certain style of behaviour doesn’t assign divorce…
Do We Know What Will Make Us Happy?
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. — Oscar Wilde, “Lady Windermere’s Fan” Photography students were…
Do We Know Who We Want?
Men never know what they want, but they will go to any lengths to get it. — Don Marquis A week before a speed dating event, a participant writes that…
When There Are Too Many Men, or Too Many Women
Scarcity is the best marketer. — Modern aphorism The birth of a son can change a family budget twenty years before his wedding. In China, parents of boys in regions…
A market that is not quite a market
If you have to be a thing, there is one consolation — being an expensive thing, a very expensive one. — A. N. Ostrovsky, “Without a Dowry” In the evening…
The Limits of Care
When you save a drowning man, make sure he doesn’t drown you too. — Folk wisdom Over the past few decades the word “boundaries” has moved off political maps and…
Not a Formula for a Person
The title “Love: Conditions Apply” should be read literally: formulas about relationships work only under a particular arrangement of choice, information and dependence. The book’s aim is more modest than…
Forgiveness: repair or subsidy?
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. — William Blake Forgiveness enters the conversation already loaded with morality. It is rarely discussed as an operation…
Why economics belongs here
The word “economics” in a conversation about love raises an understandable suspicion. It is usually expected to bring an attempt to put a price on people, turn marriage into an…
Why Simple Answers Are So Hard to Kill
A stereotype has several advantages over a good model. It is short, it does not require you to specify the country, the generation, the social class and the design of…
Jealous Means He Loves You?
Jealousy is always born with love, but it does not always die with it. — François de La Rochefoucauld If future archaeologists reconstructed our civilization from romantic films alone, they…
Why couples fight about the same thing
In an argument the truth is lost. The one who ends the argument is the smarter one. — L. N. Tolstoy Seen from a distance, conflict looks like a sign…
A Formula Without the Fine Print
Take the rule that whoever loves less holds the power. Picture two people: one moved to the partner’s country, gave up work, barely speaks the local language and spent several…
Compromise: virtue or trap?
Compromise is the art of dividing a cake so that everyone believes he got the biggest piece. — Ludwig Erhard “In a good marriage both people meet each other halfway”…