something_else

It isn’t false, there are several large well respected studies showing that there is a link between ejaculation frequency and prostate cancer. Ironically ”all forms of fasting are beneficial for human health” is a far broader statement for which there is absolutely no solid evidence for whatsoever. Some forms of fasting are beneficial to some people.

If anything sex energises me, I feel more drained when I go without it for extended periods. I don't really feel drained day to day in general either, so no fap or semen retention just feels like a solution to a problem I don't have. Not to mention, not ejaculating increases your risk of prostate cancer. The only thing I regularly do that makes me feel drained is vaping nicotine, and that's largely because it is such a strong addiction with lots of shame associated with it.

I think it has value for guys who struggle with excessive urges to masturbate or watch porn. In my case, I enjoy sex, and I enjoy jerking off. Neither has really impacted my life in any direct way. I don't really feel any shame around either and I don't find that abstaining has any significant impact on me, beyond making me less able to focus on important stuff because my mind focuses on sex. I guess you can argue that eventually you learn to control those urges after lots of abstaining and somehow that benefits you, but I struggle to see what the mechanism would be there. Most likely you just end up more desperate than you would otherwise be because women are your only source of orgasm, so you need women more. IMO if you don't naturally struggle with an addiction to jerking off, all you do by getting into nofap and semen retention is give yourself a massive complex of shame around something that's pretty natural and healthy.

Honestly I find when I don't cum it makes me more desperate for women if anything.

Most people give zero fucks about this, though. Few people really care about privacy enough especially if privacy requires the slightest inconvenience or sacrifice, and similarly, most people trust corporations out of convenience or ignorance. NFTs taking off in the way you suggest would require corporations to support them heavily, which they’ll only do if it makes them more money somehow. Otherwise why would they give up any control? Ownership only really matters if it gives you some actual benefit. A million dollars does. If an NFT proves I own an album or movie or some digital knick knack but everyone else can download the exact same thing anyway, then the NFT is barely doing anything useful. Multiplayer video game items make more sense for NFTs because they trigger the same part of our mind that gives objects in the real world value, largely because our mind is modelling the video game world as the real world. But even then the games company still has to recognise the NFT for it to have any real value so they still hold most of the power. If the game shuts down your NFT becomes worthless. So it's still ultimately pretty gimmicky. Also, a lot of game enthusiasts hate monetisation of games. It actually ruins the experience in many ways because it becomes less about the quality of the game and more about getting rich. I think if you can actually explain what the day to day experience of using NFT tech would look like for an average person in this scenario where it becomes ubiquitous, I'd be more convinced. Most revolutionary tech of the past 30 years has revolutionised the world because somebody made extremely useful but abstract tech accessible and easy to use, think computers > Windows/MacOS/Desktop/Laptop/Keyboard/Mouse/Smartphones the internet > browsers/web design/apps AI > Chat based assistants and agents It's hard to imagine what would come after the > here for NFTs.

What is your body count, out of curiosity? I wouldn't give it much thought tbh. 5 people isn't that many people. If you are genuinely good in bed, which it sounds like you are, and you guys get on well together this isn't something that needs a lot of thought.

Good luck dude. Hope it goes well for you

I think there are some practical applications of NFTs, like video game items, ticketing systems and corporate loyalty programs. But even there, the value is pretty limited. The same things can largely be achieved cheaper without NFTs. I just don't think NFTs will ever be particularly mainstream, they're limited to very specific use cases. There is just not that much social value in being able to say "I have the original copy of this digital asset!" when everybody can type the name of that digital asset into Google and see an exact copy. Rare digital assets don't have the same value to humans as a physical asset like a painting or a playing card, perhaps with the rare exception of video games. There, the feeling of owning a rare digital item does have some value. But again, games have been creating that feeling for years without NFTs. It's also often the case that the digital asset itself isn't even stored on the blockchain. Often the NFT is just certifying a link to that digital asset on somebody else's server. If you bought a 500k original copy of a JPEG you aren't even certified as owning the JPEG. You're certified as owning a URL to the JPEG on some other company's server, or if you're lucky, distributed storage of some kind. Copyright is another thing entirely. Owning an NFT does not automatically give you ownership of the copyright or any other legal rights over the associated work, those rights must be transferred or licensed separately. There are just many issues with it. I think it's likely that this tech will be silently used by companies in ways that it's actually useful to them, but is unlikely to ever become mainstream.

Honestly Astra doesn't feel like a massive jump to me, at least day to day when using it for coding. It's better, but not world shatteringly so. It still has the same flaws as every other coding agent, which is that it doesn't really make high level architecture decisions very well and needs to be guided through such decisions. Not to say AI hasn't changed how I work massively, it's completely changed software engineering and the productivity boosts are insane. I just don't think Astra is really that deserving of all the hype.

The issue with evo psych is that it’s largely all speculation. There is often no way to actually confirm the root of a behaviour is evolution, not social or cultural. It ends up being a lot of valid sounding stories that cannot be proven or disproven.

It’s definitely a form of non-monogamy, and arguably polyamory by the strict definition. But it runs pretty strongly against the ethos of most poly communities, which tends to emphasise autonomy and rejecting possessive or unequal relationship rules. If you’re saying you’re allowed multiple partners but every woman must be exclusive to you, you’re consciously baking a very asymmetric power structure into the relationship. That’s why “harem-building” is generally viewed extremely negatively in poly communities, even if you can technically fit it under the broad definition of polyamory.

Again, what you’re trying to create isn’t really polyamory, It’s a harem. So the studies on polyamory don’t really transfer to that.

This doesn’t have to happen. When I was in peak man hoe phase I had this to a degree, but as I grew I started to regain that kind of nice guy empathy towards women. It was far more genuine, because it wasn’t coming from a place of needing female attention. I genuinely just started to really love the company of women, sex or no sex. That indifference towards sex + empathy towards women is both very mentally healthy, and counter-intuitively quite attractive as well.

Oh I agree with that, if you wanted to try this out without kids being involved then go for it. But interesting lifestyles aren’t always great for raising kids. Stability is more important. I think you could make an argument for it being quite unethical from that POV. Out of curiosity, what is it that drives you so much towards this harem setup?

In this case there are lots of problems. Each new person increases the number of interpersonal relationships exponentially. With you, 4 women, each with 1 kid, that’s 72 interpersonal relationships in play. And conflict multiplies much faster than the extra support you get. Chances are at least one woman will want to leave at some point. Custody will be a bitch. Splitting assets will be a bitch. If you replace her that’s 3 other women who also have to be comfortable with the new woman being around their kids. There will be some kind of hierarchy that forms, and jealousy is very likely. You are the bottleneck in attention for every single one of these mothers and kids, so your time will be spread incredibly thin. If the women aren’t allowed to see other men, they’re sacrificing a lot for a small share of male attention, which will eventually breed resentment. Especially if they’re low down the pecking order. You then have the social stigma, which you may be fine with but you have no guarantee for your kids or the women. They may be fine with it at the start, but things change. Financially, if you come on hard times the whole thing collapses. This is not a cheap lifestyle, even with multiple incomes. Enough space and privacy for this many people is a serious concern. Sexual health / STI management is a serious concern, balance of probability is one of the women, or you, cheat at some point. Then everybody gets an STI. So you need regular testing. Maternal favouritism is another serious concern. Each mother will obviously favour her own kid, which will likely cause issues. Who can discipline whose kids? Like, this sounds like my idea of a nightmare. Good luck managing this and a full time job. All that just so you can have group sex on the regular, which will also lose its appeal over time as it becomes less special. I mean I wish you good luck, but you’ve really got your work cut out for you 😛 this would be my idea of a nightmare

I think that’s quite an idealised view of how that would work, the reality would not be so idyllic

When I’m single I am the player 😛 I’ve spent a lot of time in clubs, yea people cheat, but it’s not like the moment a girl enters a club or a bar she forgets she has a boyfriend, especially if it’s serious and going well. Also, a lot of late teen / early twenties people in clubs have someone they’d call a boyfriend or girlfriend but it’s really more like a situationship. Calling that cheating is a stretch. I’m generally pretty secure. I don’t see a point in worrying about my girlfriend cheating unless I actually saw evidence that it was happening. I certainly wouldn’t worry about Owen of all people lmao. You revere pickup people way too much. Most girls would find Owen mildly entertaining but not particularly attractive.

I don’t doubt it happens, but to assume that all women are just mindless creatures with no morality who will cheat whenever they get an opportunity is not a fair characterisation. Some girls may do this, that doesn’t mean your girlfriend will do this.

I think you’re projecting your experience as a guy into women. Most guys go out with the primary goal of getting laid, so you assume women are the same. Many women enjoy going out just to dance and have a few drinks with friends, not specifically to get laid. Although many do go out for that as well of course.

If you genuinely want to be in a mixed gender polycule of some kind I think it can work with the right people, usually people with low competitiveness and jealousy. I think open relationships can also work with the right couple and clear boundaries. But there’s an inherent problem where the more people you add to a romantic relationship the more chaotic and dramatic it gets. It can be fun, but I don’t know if it’s very sustainable in the long run. You also have guys who want to be polyamorous largely so they can build a harem. People in the poly community actively warn each other about this type of guy because they aren’t really in it for the right reasons. It’s all about ego and status, it doesn’t match the core values of the poly community.

Exactly this. I think taking on pickup as a paradigm/identity is the problem, even if parts of it are useful. By all means push yourself to talk to lots of women, but do it under the framework of improving social skills or pushing your boundaries instead of ‘pickup’. As I said, that’s not to say there aren’t parts of the pickup framework that are useful on this journey, but the identity with the framework itself is the problem. It comes with so much baggage. The men I’ve met who got laid the most would not describe themselves as PUAs. in fact they’d likely think that’s quite cringy. They’re just very sociable guys. They don’t think in terms of “approaches” or “sets” or “frame”. They think in terms of meeting new people, having fun, being playful, and confident. You can argue it’s just a difference of language, and to a degree it is, but that’s a bigger deal than it seems. Once you start using the lingo you start building an identity around it, and that’s where you lose authenticity which hamstrings you in the long run. In general, identifying too much with any particular framework can become problem. The goal should be to build your own identity by taking bits and pieces from different frameworks without wholeheartedly adopting one as your entire personality.

If the girl was a forest ranger, I’d sure as shit be asking her what to do. In fact, funnily enough I have almost been in that situation. There was no bear right in our face, but we thought we could hear one nearby and she knew exactly what to do. She did not lose respect for me because I let her lead, if anything she gained respect because I didn’t “try to be the man” and deal with it when she was clearly the expert. She had experienced men doing that a lot in the past and it annoyed her. Point being these blanket rules are kind of silly. I agree you should not be a pushover, but don’t be obsessed with the idea of leading all of the time. As everybody is saying, if you’re truly secure it shouldn’t hurt your ego to not be the one in control sometimes.

I have a bad habit of doing this, and you’re completely right. It’s not productive

Bingo

But the point is, a good boss makes you want to follow them independent of the fact that they pay your salary. I get where you’re coming from, but your goal is to be a guy she wants to follow, not someone who she feels is trying too hard to make her follow him. Obsessing over control is a bad habit to get into, it comes across very needy and insecure. Confident/secure men don’t really care that much if they are in control or not, which counter-intuitively makes them come across as more in control. And most healthy relationships are pretty give and take I think. Sometimes she is in control, sometimes you are. The ideal is that both parties contribute to the plans of the relationship. If a girl suggests going somewhere, don’t just reject her and tell her no because women aren’t allowed to make plans. Get excited by it and start planning it out, contribute more to her idea. “Oh yea that sounds fun! Let’s do it and then afterwards we can go to place nearby I love called XYZ”.