Some people “just know”, but for those seeking an evidence-based approach to lifelong commitment, mathematicians have come up with the statistically optimal dating strategy.The question is, how many people you need to date before knowing you’ve made a good choice? The magic threshold turns out to be 37%. To have the best chance of picking your very best match, you should date and reject (harsh, but optimal) the first 37% of your total potential lifetime of partners.Then, you follow the simple rule of picking the next person who is better than anyone you’ve ever dated before. To apply this in the real world, you’ll have to decide for yourself what your maximum lifetime number of partners is and what counts as a partner rather than merely a fling.Let’s say it’s 10. You should date and reject the first four and then pick the next person who is better than anyone you’ve dated previously.The approach is not without risk: if you happen to meet the best person you could ever hope to go out with first, you’ll never meet anyone who matches up and end up alone. And in real life, of course, you could get dumped first.