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Here's a Map of Seattle (Heartbreak) Built From Dating Profiles

Who knew we had dragons and matadors? Evidently, they're on the minds of your neighbors.

Here's a noble goal: a portrait of America written by Americans.

Some people would launch a scholarly effort and enlist the efforts of a distinguished organization. R. Luke DuBois skipped all of that and pulled data from the dating profiles on 21 websites. After a lot of analysis, he replaced cities and zip codes with the prominent word pulled from the profiles. Welcome to the world we live in.

  • Seattle = Heartbreak (Ouch.)
  • Tacoma = Pretty (Nice self-esteem there.)
  • Everett = Beautiful (Maybe it's the view.)
  • Bellevue = Cigarette (Really? For smoking, or boating?)
  • Federal Way = Books (Reading is fun!)
  • Redmond = Email (Kinda sad, Microsoft.)
  • Renton = Burlesque (Shocked, shocked we are to hear this.)
  • Tukwila = Matador (Interesting to have matador close to burlesque.)
  • Kent = Stumbling (Sorry to hear that.)
  • Edmonds = Haunt (How did a seaside town get spooky?)
  • North Seattle = Wet (Aren't we all, in this climate?)

If you're interested in his method, watch his entertaining TED Talk (If you just want the bit about our area, skip ahead to 8:20). It was done for fun, art, insights, and is necessarily imperfect. Build the same map from the words in real estate listings and probably find Seattle = Condo and Duval = Farm. In the meantime, be aware that south of Tacoma there be Dragons and Fantasies - and a possible excuse for a road trip.

· Insightful human portraits made from data [TED]