How Graphics Technology Helped One Man Find True Love

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A lonely Ph.D. student at the University of California, Los Angeles, used math, GPUs — and a little hacking — to find true love. The tale of how Chris McKinlay mined profiles on the OkCupid dating service site to get himself in front of scores of women, eventually meeting fiancée Christine Tien Wang, has earned the mathematician worldwide fame. Here’s the part of the story that hasn’t been told: McKinlay used CUDA, and a Tesla GPU, to crunch the numbers that made him lucky in love. “It was probably overkill, but it was hard to resist, as I had one sitting in front of me,” McKinlay said.
 
...am I the only one who thinks this guy is some kind of desperate freak? If I'm reading it right, he basically analyzed OkCupid to an extent where he could craft a profile that would match up favorably with the largest-possible percentage of women (so his profile would have maximum visibility). So basically he's a fraud?

And I find it hilarious how this is yet another case of creepy/nerdy white with Asian girl.
 
Having only one success out of 87 dates within that short of a time period is not exactly a success story. You'd most likely have similar (if not better) success rates just messaging women based on whether you like their profile (as opposed to using some convoluted mathematical algorithm).
 
Megalith said:
...am I the only one who thinks this guy is some kind of desperate freak? If I'm reading it right, he basically analyzed OkCupid to an extent where he could craft a profile that would match up favorably with the largest-possible percentage of women (so his profile would have maximum visibility). So basically he's a fraud?

And I find it hilarious how this is yet another case of creepy/nerdy white with Asian girl.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of Kif & Amy from Futurama
http://theinfosphere.org/images/c/c9/KifUncontrolledCamoflauge.png
 
Well that has to be one of the saddest things I've read in a while.
 
And did it really require GPU computing? Dataset doesn't seem like anything an average CPU couldn't cope with.

And, yes, basically lying about yourself to fabricate a persona that would appeal to women is a great way to a good relationship.
 
I don't think I've been on 87 dates in my entire life. In fact, I can't think of more than 8 or 10 different girls that I ever went on a date with, and I didn't get married until I was 35. I never understood how people could be so codependent.
 
Wrecked Em said:
I don't think I've been on 87 dates in my entire life. In fact, I can't think of more than 8 or 10 different girls that I ever went on a date with, and I didn't get married until I was 35. I never understood how people could be so codependent.
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Really?? maybe if you didn't lurk on [H] Forums.:D:D
 
damicatz said:
Having only one success out of 87 dates within that short of a time period is not exactly a success story. You'd most likely have similar (if not better) success rates just messaging women based on whether you like their profile (as opposed to using some convoluted mathematical algorithm).
Click to expand...

Some people are either really picky, or the women maybe just thought he was a bit of a freak. Not everyone can find someone they are looking for that quickly.

Megalith said:
...am I the only one who thinks this guy is some kind of desperate freak? If I'm reading it right, he basically analyzed OkCupid to an extent where he could craft a profile that would match up favorably with the largest-possible percentage of women (so his profile would have maximum visibility). So basically he's a fraud?

And I find it hilarious how this is yet another case of creepy/nerdy white with Asian girl.
Click to expand...

No, you aren't. What he did was mined the system to find which questions women in general found the most meaningful, and he answered those questions. He geared it towards favorable answers, but that was only part of the process. He then mined to find which women were the most appealing to him. He narrowed it down from a large number to a much smaller more manageable number and then started to set up dates. I don't see how it makes him any creepier than the next guy, or any more desperate. I don't see how it is any different from guys going to bars to pick up women and getting all dressed up in whatever the latest fashion is, and trying to look appealing to catch a girl's eye. And in that situation the guys mostly don't know anything at all about the girls. So really, which situation is more creepy?

Meeho said:
And did it really require GPU computing? Dataset doesn't seem like anything an average CPU couldn't cope with.

And, yes, basically lying about yourself to fabricate a persona that would appeal to women is a great way to a good relationship.
Click to expand...

He mentioned it was probably overkill, but he was already using GPU computing for his work. It was apparently easy enough for him to use similar algorithms for this. Also it never really said he lied, just that he made a profile that matched up with what women responded most to. Which could mean any number of things. Mostly it meant he took the things he found they felt were most important and highlighted those on his profile. Not really any different than resume building really.
 
Megalith said:
...am I the only one who thinks this guy is some kind of desperate freak? If I'm reading it right, he basically analyzed OkCupid to an extent where he could craft a profile that would match up favorably with the largest-possible percentage of women (so his profile would have maximum visibility). So basically he's a fraud?

And I find it hilarious how this is yet another case of creepy/nerdy white with Asian girl.
Click to expand...

It's really annoying to see wihite guys going after Asian girls.
 
Society at large usually has an easier time accepting white guys w/ Asian girls vs. Asian guys w/ white chicks.
 
Hmmm back in my day when you wanted to get in front of other guys when vying for attention of a particular woman you found a way to physically get in front of other guys.
 
Wired had a pretty long article on this one two or so weeks ago. Interesting, yet full of shit and stupid conclusions.

I expected a link to the article. Instead, we're learning that it was nvidia that made the guy happy... NOT.

It wasn't CUDA that helped him (gooby pls), nor was it math or any kind of technology really.

Since that dating site would only list "matches" based on some funky algorithm, he needed to launch bots/fake accounts geared towards different groups of women in order to circumvent the back-end. Then after a few months and 100 or so dates, he finally found his true love. pffffff

Math? Technology? Get the fuck out of here. There's no practical reason to "confirm" everything your brain does with math.
 
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