So, I was proofreading a paper on contact tracing networks the other day, and it got me thinking. Epidemiology is all about how things like viruses or information spread through populations via connections between people. That seems weirdly similar to how dating works, right? You meet someone, and through them, you might meet their friends, and suddenly your social circle has completely shifted.
I’m fascinated by the patterns in both fields. In martial arts, you learn about distance and controlled contact. With drones, you map terrain and connections from above. It feels like dating has its own kind of transmission dynamics. How do relationships actually “spread” through friend groups or apps? Are there predictable patterns, or is it all just random encounters? I’d love to hear if anyone else has ever looked at their social or dating life through this kind of analytical lens. What parallels have you noticed?