Oh yes. I got several asks and at least two planned dates in response. As also happened the last time I published a blog request for a date several years ago.

The straightforward approach does work, but you have to deploy it considerately. And you have to have an audience, that likes you.

In this case, I directed it at no one. So women who were interested, could choose on their own, unpressured, whether to reply. That’s obviously the least problematic way to ever do this. But it does require a lot of people are reading the ad and that some of them are interested. Most people can’t count on one or the other. So if you were asking “would it work for anyone else,” probably not for many. But if it’s honest and polite, I can see no honest harm in trying. Other than that certain people who imagine themselves the sex police will get angry at you for daring to post an ad for a date.

More broadly, though, I would re-frame your question into its converse: should we use non-straightforward ways of finding dates? And honestly, I can’t think of the answer ever being yes. No one should be engaging in “game” that tries to manipulate people. Any query after interest should be polite and honest, appropriate to the circumstances, and respectful of the answer—and not employing subterfuge.

It should also not be “out of the blue.” Posting ads in the open is not an issue, because no particular person is being asked (much less anyone who asn’t already said they are open to it—hence dating apps and personals). But if you mean, someone you are going to ask, there’s more to consider. There needs to be some plausible reason someone you are interested in would be interested in you, before it would ever make sense to express your interest to them. The direct approach, when asking a particular person, is only going to work in those contexts. Otherwise it’s probably just annoying to the person you are asking. And people don’t usually date folks who annoy them.

Tim Ferriss reports that a striaghtforward approach works, and that is what you tried here. I would prefer to be in a world where striaghtforward approaches work, but I don’t get to decide that.