DATING 101: ALWAYS CHOOSE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

My co-worker, Cristina, recently emailed me an article with the subject line "Why it's good to be single in L.A. instead of NYC." The article had a map which showed how there are ridiculously more single men on the West Coast than on the East Coast.

I was always taught in school to consider the counter-argument, even when the data in front of you can appear all too convincing at times.


The article basically argued that single women have a much better chance to find love in California than in New York. At first, this seems like a fairly reasonable assumption. After all, it appears there are many more 'fish in the sea' here in L.A. and clearly many more men to choose from. On the East Coast, particularly New York, the map shows that there are very few single men and a heck of a lot of single women, meaning more competition for the non-committed females.

However, being the analytical person that I am, I decided to ponder this data in search for a counter-argument. Under the assumption that the male to female ratio on both Coasts is fairly the same, I would argue that the explanation for this data is very simple.

(First of all this is a generalization and is in no way meant to offend sexes on either Coast).

Anything in life of value is most likely to be a rarity. Things that are great don't have surplus. I would argue that men on the East Coast are better than men on the West Coast, which is why they are less easy to find. They get quickly snatched up! My reasoning for 'better' is the following:

1. They have better manners (open doors, pull out chairs, take women on nice dates)
2. They dress better (unlike the gangstah, Von Dutch-wearing men in L.A.)
3. They are career-oriented (unlike how 9 out of 10 guys in L.A. are wannabe actors/ models)
4. They're cultured (while men out here love Hollywood club Goa, I doubt any know that's actually a place in India)
5. They value women (men in L.A. consider a quality woman Carmen Electra)

Equally, I think there are less single women on the West Coast because there are better quality women than on the East Coast. They put more effort into appearance, they're healthy, less-demanding, spontaneous, fun and educated (if you look around USC, UCLA, LMU, UCSD and Pepperdine - and not the Playboy Mansion).

And so, taking into account 22 years of experience, hundreds of hours of phone calls with heart-broken friends and having met dozens of men on both Coasts, I had reached a fairly conclusive counter-argument.

So I replied to Cristina's email with the following in the subject line: Quality over Quantity.