The odds of finding success when online dating are debatable, but math genius Chris McKinlay put his superior number skills to use and rigged the system in his favor.
The result? A fiancée.
Tired of low match percentages and terrible first dates, 35-year-old McKinlay was about to give up on OkCupid -- a dating website whose motto is, "We use math to get you dates." A UCLA Ph.D student at the time, McKinlay felt that their math was lacking, so he invented his own formula instead, Wired magazine reported.
Specifically, the numbers whiz created several fake profiles in order to collect data on women across the country and then created a special algorithm to hack the system. He suddenly found himself matched with thousands of women between the ages of 25 and 42 in Los Angeles, all with 90 percent and above compatibility. His system had worked.
After 88 first dates he finally found the one: a 28-year-old artist who lived near UCLA named Christine Tien Wang. Check out their entire story, including details on McKinlay's proposal, in the video above. For more on his algorithm, head over to Wired.
This is not the first time someone found success with online dating by hacking the system. Amy Webb gave a TED talk in April 2013 about an algorithm she used on several online dating sites to find the man of her dreams.
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