There's a reason why fighter pilots are trained through computer simulation: life online may be virtual, but it's pretty good practice for the real thing.

In many ways, learning to date isn't a whole lot different from learning how to fly a Boeing F-22 Raptor (all is fair in love and war, after all, even if it's better to make love than war). In both endeavors this idea holds true: the better you are in front of your computer model, the better you will navigate real-world experience.

When you write, and presumably rewrite, your profile, you're learning how to present your life in a clear, clickable package. This process of writing helps you learn not only how to sell yourself, but it also helps you discover what's really important to you. A dating profile needs to represent you in an honest if rosy light. So when you pen your profile, you're essentially expressing what makes you an individual, a process that helps you see what is good -- and bad -- about you, what really defines you, what is essential to you, and what cliches you can live without.

Moreover, this process of writing helps you when you're out in the world and sitting at a table across from a total stranger. You've already endured the procedure of discerning what is special about you. Now all you need to do is show it. When you've already articulated your best self in a profile, you'll find it's much easier to do it live, in person, with a meal in front of you.

There's no validation like free validation, and online dating can give you lots. When you take the time to write a profile that accentuates your individuality, and when you make the effort to post a picture that flatters your physicality, you'll garner interest. And interest, whether in the form of icebreakers or emails, is flattering.

Sure, there can be times when even the most confident dater suffers dry spells, but usually all it takes is tweaking your profile or posting a new picture for that drought to clear. This experience -- getting attention and not getting attention -- can help you realize your own attractiveness as well as your control over it. There's nothing as attractive as confidence, and online dating can boost yours. Confidence, in real life or online, attracts and empowers.

Anyone who has spent any time poring over profiles has acquired the fine art of reading between the lines. People who date online have to be selective, judicious and analytic when presented with the big virtual ocean of the computer dating pool. Online daters learn how to screen the sharks, release the little fish and keep the big fish on the hook all by reading profiles, emails and other non-physical exchanges.

This acquired knowledge can take you a long way in the real world. Almost everyone would love to know if the person they're dating is on the level. Online daters learn how to develop that sixth sense. It's like having a superpower. Word to the wise: now that you've got it, use it for good, not evil.

Flirting in person can be a scary proposition. Even the glibbest person can suddenly find herself a scared rabbit frozen in the headlights of an attractive human. Dating online helps you safely garner the experience you need in order to put your mad dating skills in action when it really counts.

Online daters have the big advantage of flirting in emails or in IM conversations. The solitary nature and comfortable surroundings of your own computer can help calm your nerves and give even the shyest person a chance to embrace his or her inner flirt. With experience comes confidence, and that experience -- even if it came in front of a computer monitor -- can translate into real-world confidence. Computer dating can help a shrinking violet transform into Venus fly-trap.

No one likes to fail. Failing feels bad. Failing in dating feels worse. However, with every failure, you have the chance to learn something new about yourself. Maybe you learn better what kind of person you're really interested in. Maybe you learn how to respond to emails better. Maybe you learn how to read profiles better. Whatever it is that you fail at online, the beauty part is this: it really doesn't matter.

Online dating allows you to learn how to make dating mistakes and not suffer real-life consequences. And this facet of computer dating may be its most powerful. Compatibility can feel elusive. Sometimes we don't know what we want until we recognize what we don't. Online dating allows people to make mistakes without much risk, to take a do-over and try, try again. This process helps daters realize what they want in their significant others, and it translates wonderfully into real life.

Dating isn't easy, and it requires more than a nice smile and a willingness to be polite; it requires a concerted and continued effort in the face of repeated failure. Dating online, as much as it can feel as if you're going in an endless circuitous path, gives you more than just idle hope. It gives you practice, a discerning eye and a better knowledge of who you are and what you want.

Online dating, in the end, is a lot like flying a fighter jet. You may crash and burn. You may get shot down. You will also learn new moves and ways to handle yourself while under incredible pressure. You will advance to new levels, and you will learn something new about yourself when you do. You will, in time, take your skills to the real world and you will find that you soar in unforeseen ways.