How to Answer the Hinge Prompt "The Dorkiest Thing About Me Is"

Pick a dorky trait that tells her something attractive about you, make it specific, and do not let it carry the whole profile. On one of our live reviews, a student answered that he is a sucker for epic theatrical experiences: movies, stage plays, concerts. Our coach called it an appealing kind of dorky. It grounds his personality and gives a small glimpse of what dating him would be like. His verdict was that it works well as a third prompt, once the first two are more polarizing and better written.

The coach did not praise the answer for being funny. He praised it for what it showed. Liking big live shows is a trait a certain kind of woman finds appealing, and he called it a little classy as well.

That is the job of this prompt. Our prompts lesson teaches that a prompt is a vehicle: it is only as good as the attractive trait you can deliver through it. "Dorky" gives you permission to name something you love without sounding like you are bragging. A love of something specific is a better window into your life than a personality adjective.

The coach also raised a worry about the prompt's name. The word dorky can make a woman skip your answer, because some readers stop at the label. He wondered whether a better prompt would carry the same content, since he liked the content but not the framing.

You do not need to avoid the prompt on that basis. It means the answer must be strong enough to get read, and the rest of the profile must not depend on it.

Most prompt-based apps give you about three prompts, and our coaches teach that each of the three should convey a different thing about you. The dorky one is the warm one, the one that makes you read as a real person.

So give the sharper jobs to the other two. Use one for the thing that gets her attention, ideally a polarizing answer, and one for what you look for in a woman. The coach's point on that call was exactly that: if the first two prompts are more polarizing and better written, the theater answer is a nice finish. If they are not, it is a pleasant answer carrying too much weight.

The same student had another prompt saying he works in music. The coach liked it and said that because music is such a cool, high-status career, the student gained a lot even though the line was vague. Then he pointed out what the reader still does not know: whether the man is an artist, a producer, a manager or an agent. His advice was to add the specific.

Apply the same test to your dork trait. "I love movies" could be anyone. The kind of movie, the kind of theater, or the one concert you would go to again is the part only you can write. In that same review, the coach also pointed at a line about being creative, intelligent and ambitious. He said a woman may be bored by the end of the first sentence and skim the second.

One student's only prompt was a line graph built out of keyboard characters, a nerdy joke about how far he goes between wholesome and wild. The coach liked the creativity and said it reads as cute, cheeky and nerdy but also cool. He did not understand the graph, and thought the axes and labels could be better.

His larger point was about count. If that is your only prompt, it is a problem. The graph can be the nerdy-but-cool piece, as long as two other prompts say something clear about him.

In a separate review, our coach looked at a profile built around one line: that he is super selective and a woman should not feel bad if he does not reply. The coach said that may be a nice element, but it cannot be the entire representation of who you are, because it is limited and one-dimensional.

A dork trait can fall into the same trap. Whether it is theater, board games or a graph, it is one thing. Three prompts, each a different thing, make a man a woman can picture. Write more than you need, keep the best, and read the final three out loud as a woman would. If she could finish the sentence "so he is the guy who..." in only one way, add something that gives her a second ending.