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Can Analytics Help Fix Your Love Life? 73

Posted by samzenpus from the 13%-increase-in-kissing-this-month dept.
d2ncal wrote in to tell us about a new service that takes all the guess work out of a relationship by providing you with timely feedback, and charts to see how your affection is trending. TheIcebreak was created by Christina Brodbeck and Dwipal Desai, who gave up their jobs at YouTube to create the relationship quantifying service. The pair have gone to great lengths to become relationship experts by doing things such as: reading books on relationships, and enlisting the help of a couples therapist, to ensure that the data collected is useful to your long term love life. The service is free now, and Android and iPhone apps are coming soon."
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Can Analytics Help Fix Your Love Life? More

Can Analytics Help Fix Your Love Life?

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  • This software must be broken (Score:3)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Thursday August 11, 2011 @11:40AM (#37057300)

    I entered all my info and now all it ever responds with is "Outlook not so good" every time I ask it for advice on improving my love life.

    • Hmm... Whenever I ask for love, it always says "Ask again later", then rolls over and goes to sleep.
    • Maybe you should try Eudora or Thunderbird? ;)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tloh ( 451585 )

        Given that we are talking about the underlying drive for reproductive success, the obvious solution is Evolution, wouldn't you agree?

        • Alas! If only I had known about it beforehand. I will use this rendition in the future. Thank you.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tloh ( 451585 )

            You're welcome! In more ways than one - I just took a quick glance at your comment history. Folks with decent expertise in the biological sciences are far and few here. Slashdot is lucky to have you! ;-)

            • Signatures truly are a powerful medium, it seems.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by tloh ( 451585 )

                Actually, yours was slightly off-putting, but perhaps your intent was to parody a stereotype rather than perpetuate it. That's why I bothered to look into your comment history to figure out what your deal really was. No harm done.

                You *did* get me to look, though. Memo to sig: Mission accomplished.

                • It's kind of in beta; up until a few hours ago I had a bad joke about regular expressions instead ("How did the regex cross the road?" "^.*$"). Any suggestions on improvements will be gracefully accepted!

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by tloh ( 451585 )

                    Samantha, *you* are the ultimate authority on what image/impression you want to project. (^_^) If you're an in-your-face confrontational kind of gal, anything that has to do with politics or religion (or nerd tribalism on slashdot) will never fail to disappoint (or offend). If it was me and I wanted to showcase the intersection of my code geek side with my bio geek side, I'd maybe go with something like:

                    --
                    A template in the language of life:
                    AUG - /* insert code here */ - TAG
                    --

                    I myself chose to go with the

                    • By golly, completely off topic [reply], but thanks for an interesting read. Made me almost spray my G&T all over my computer screen re: template in the language of life.

                      *sigh* I should try get out more often...

        • Given that we are talking about the underlying drive for reproductive success, the obvious solution is Evolution, wouldn't you agree?

          Shocking. Before I could click "join" Theicebreak recommended I remove myself from the gene-pool.

              Incidentally, can anyone tell me what happens if it lets you click join? It won't allow me to, no matter what computer I use or proxy I go through.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jd2112 ( 1535857 )

      I entered all my info and now all it ever responds with is "Outlook not so good" every time I ask it for advice on improving my love life.

      Are you sure you didn't acidentially go to the Magic 8 Ball site instead?

    • "Outlook not so good"

      Freakin' open-source zealots...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by genner ( 694963 )

      I entered all my info and now all it ever responds with is "Outlook not so good" every time I ask it for advice on improving my love life.

      Get a real email client. Problem solved.

  • I'm a computer geek to the core. Nothing can fix my love life.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ph0rk ( 118461 )
      You need to have a love life for it to be fixable. Sorry.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      I am disabled and a hardcore virgin geek/nerd, and over 35. :(

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by DoofusOfDeath ( 636671 )

      I'm a computer geek to the core. Nothing can fix my love life.

      Work on being an excellent person. Love will almost certainly follow.

      • I speak multiple languages, even ones that are made up. I can tell you everything you never wanted to know about the history of the Jeep. I can write code that makes a computer get up and dance. I can quote Monty Python off the top of my head for days without repeating myself. How much more excellence can there be in one man? And why can the women not see this excellence?

        And yes, this bit of sarcasm was brought to you in order to emphasize the joke that was my first post...

  • It is a really simple algorithm they used, since you visited their site your relationship is trending down. Even more so if you get the app.
  • If you are interested in statistical analysis applied to your love-life, you should care to look at OkTrends [okcupid.com] as well.

    And perhaps you should know that it may not be the best idea all the time. [smbc-comics.com]

  • If your relationship really needs analysis by a disinterested or arm's-length third party to survive and flourish, then perhaps at least one of you is rather narcissistic [wikipedia.org] or has Aspberger's [wikipedia.org] or some other social maladjustment. Fair enough in those cases (although such persons might not necessarily either seek or follow good advice), but not very compelling for the rest of us.

    • some other social maladjustment

      We read /. you insensitive clod.

    • So you're saying that all you "normal" people are really relationship experts? Lots of people have relationship
      problems, and a helpful tip or two might be the deciding factor in marginal cases. Even if your relationship is a happy one, who wouldn't want to grab some low hanging fruit (snickersnack!) and pump it up a notch?

      Thumbing your nose at free (possibly useful) advice concerning as aspect of your life you presumably care about sounds like maladjusted behavior to me!

  • Obvious answer (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Thursday August 11, 2011 @11:48AM (#37057478)
    If you have to use an analytics app to gauge how your relationship is doing and get suggestions, then you are probably already beyond help.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by archen ( 447353 )

      I'd actually think the reverse is true. Relationships which are most doomed to fail are the ones where people refuse to fix their problems. For that matter these people are often delusional and tell themselves that everything is just fine. Just because a relationship appears healthy doesn't mean there are things lurking beneath the surface which will doom it. Occasionally asking yourself if there are signs of danger, or what you can improve upon is a good thing to do but often not obvious. Sometimes li

    • Yeah... In the same way if you have to use analytics tools and measure how your enterprise is doing and get suggestions from experts, then you are probably already beyond help. </sarcasm>

    • Analytics???

      Ohhh! Per what I saw between my browser tab and then opening it, "Can Anal" ... "Fix Your Love Life?"

      It's just one part of the whole.

  • A site asks you and your SO questions and predicts your happiness over time? I don't think this is going do any good for your love life. Just love and support your SO and make your own happiness.

  • doing things such as: reading books on relationships

    Whilst some things can be learned from books (law being a reasonable example), and many things can be improved through learning from books, I'm not wholly convinced that one can become an expert on relationships by reading books about relationships - it strikes me as a field in which expertise would require actual, real world experience?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jd2112 ( 1535857 )

      doing things such as: reading books on relationships

      Whilst some things can be learned from books (law being a reasonable example), and many things can be improved through learning from books, I'm not wholly convinced that one can become an expert on relationships by reading books about relationships - it strikes me as a field in which expertise would require actual, real world experience?

      Why is it that most of the books on relationships have been written by people who have been divorced multiple times?

      • Why is it that most of the books on relationships have been written by people who have been divorced multiple times?

        Maybe it is that old adage at work: You learn more from your failures than your successes. Or maybe they spent so much time writing the book and trying to solve other people's problem they ignored their own!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hiryuu ( 125210 )

          Maybe it is that old adage at work: You learn more from your failures than your successes.

          Hi. I'll venture forth with the embarrassing revelation that I'm in my mid-thirties, have been divorced twice, and am on marriage number three. I can't say that failure is a better instructor than success, or that success has less to teach, but that, for the willing and appropriately humbled, failure can teach you a lot of really important things.

          Failed relationships hurt. They involve a lot of different personal an

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tepic++ ( 221291 )

          Assuming you're aiming for a life-long monogamous relationship, I've always felt that you're best off understanding one good way to succeed rather than exploring the infinite ways you can fail.

  • Will you get married? (Score:3)

    by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Thursday August 11, 2011 @12:07PM (#37057778)
    Text your name and your crush's name to 555-uztupid! Brought to you by the people that think you're stupid enough to buy a ringtone you heard on TV for $5.

  • It for sure can fix the problem that singles are better consumers.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • It is my belief that any input that sparks communication between you and your SO will ultimately have a positive effect on your relationship. That is that if the two of you both passionately believe that you are in it for the longhaul then it will allow you two to discuss each others desires and frustrations. If there is uncertainty or a major disconnect communication of these things could end the relationship sooner so that each person can move on with their lives. For those couples where one or both are

  • If it keeps you thinking about it instead of just taking your partner for granted, that might be plenty.

  • Can analytics help fix your love life?

    NOTHING can fix that train wreck.

  • 1) Hold yourself to a high standard (hygiene, fashion, confidence [the real kind, not the knock-all-others-down-a-peg kind], health, well-roundedness [have lots of other things to do than obsess over girls and sex])

    2) Pay attention to her every nuance, her reactions to what you say and do, her favorite ice-cream or wine, where she likes to be touched, anything. Everything she does is data to be stored in your internal database. Pay attention to detail like you do with code, it's an underrated talent that

    • 2) Pay attention to her every nuance, her reactions to what you say and do, her favorite ice-cream or wine, where she likes to be touched, anything. Everything she does is data to be stored in your internal database. Pay attention to detail like you do with code, it's an underrated talent that programmers have but don't apply to anything else IRL.

      Also useful advice for the aspiring stalker-on-the-go! Seriously, sometimes having someone scrutinize your every move and memorize your every preference can be pretty off-putting. Some women like this, some don't, just like guys. YMMV.

      7) Layman's terms, layman's terms, layman's terms, I can't stress this enough. You can't connect with a girl if you can't relate to her. Even with layman's terms, most of our professions are still to complicated to understand. They are just fine with hearing that you really love your job and consider it like an art form and how your work helps people (depending on the profession, that is).

      Or, you know, look for a woman who's into the same things you are...not all women get bored discussing code optimization ;)

      1) Hold yourself to a high standard (hygiene, fashion, confidence [the real kind, not the knock-all-others-down-a-peg kind], health, well-roundedness [have lots of other things to do than obsess over girls and sex])

      Yes! The more interests you have (not 'pretend to have', but actually, truly enjoy), the more likely you'll have something in common. My husband and

    • that is funny since I did the total opposite and it is great :
      I act like a total douche with my woman : I order her, I spank her, I am the king of my kingdom and fuck: it works great.

      I used to be all sensitive and emo, but one day, about 8 years ago, I said fuck it I am a man and a man I meant to dominate a woman. You know what, it worked, women likes bad guys, they appreciate that you love theirs intellect but they love it when you love theirs body and comment it in rough and naughty ways.

      Btw I only dated

  • Who are these people to be giving love advice? According to the summary, their supposed expertise consists of "reading books on relationships" (How many, and which ones?) and "enlisting the help of a couples therapist" (What, like one? What are the qualifications of this supposed couples therapist?).

    In case any of you guys haven't figured it out yet, 90% of people trying to give you advice on any subject are completely full of shit, including the authors of books and therapists. In anything related to love

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