nerdspeak

Realistically you should just get decent at app-driven dating, which requires a big market, ie, a big city as others have said (it’s like any kind of online advertising). Get good photos and buy boosts. I found Berlin to be okay for online dating. France was much better, especially Lille for some reason. Brussels and Amsterdam were also good.

Two resources I used to recommend: https://shamik.net/teaching/materials/dasgupta a brief guide to argument mapping.pdf https://www.academia.edu/2247188/Dont_Panic_The_Procrastinators_Guide_to_Writing_an_Effective_Term_Paper

I agree with what Leo said but will add some specifics as I taught college for a while. The biggest issue undergrads have is their papers are evidence rather than argument driven. A good analogy is that they write more like speculative detective’s reports presenting a lot of evidence to the lawyer, rather than a lawyer’s brief to the court about why they should convict someone. You should make a claim I can agree or disagree with. A common structure is “Many scholars hold x, but I hold y, as shown by evidence 1, evidence 2, evidence 3.” Another is, “Common theory x is confirmed by point 1, point 2, point 3.”

Yeah agree. It’s very childish.

It’s really not that rational, what works in nightclubs or first two months of dating with women under 30 is not “how it works” objectively

This is true of female abusers too, although of course the risk of physical abuse is much lower. But most men are children too, the management and/or manipulation tactics you use with them are just slightly different.

I often fantasize about this, but I can’t last more than a month when I try. It’s not the lack of sex, it’s the isolation and lack of support. Probably part of why Nietzsche went mad. To pursue celibacy, I’d need to live in a monastery or commune. Or at least a small town where I constantly run into friends. In college or high school lack of sex or intimacy never bothered me due to (1) institutional support; (2) constant interaction with friends contained by the institution.

There are guys like that but that's the most damaged 10-20%. Men who are a bit more secure don't have the desire to "pimp," that drive comes from trust issues. When I was in my 20s I had lots of short-term relationships but some of them turned into longer-term more serious things that lasted a few years. I don't think I "pimped" these girls even if it was a one-night stand, we were having fun. I think if you told these women they got "pimped" they would be offended, and say that they were having fun and liked it but it didn't go anywhere serious. If you're talking about teenagers, yeah okay, maybe they should be protected and just date people from their high school and college, that I agree.

predators like Tate are rare, this sounds like an overreaction.

eh. people in the 60s panicked about how highways, trains, birth control and no-fault divorce changed gender relations. things are changing because of technology but it's not really a big deal, there are soooo many people. you can find what you want.

It's a back-up plan. Like, if I were building a team in a company, I would make sure people could do each other's jobs in case one of the team members gets sick. Anyone can get sick enough to not work for a month or two, even in their twenties. Ideally you'd have multiple back-ups -- friends, family, extended kinship, a good welfare state -- but not everyone has that luxury. I can just observe in myself, that when I'm in a relationship I'm less neurotic, even though I hate many things about relationships, and I've talked to multiple therapists and concluded this is the reason why. If you can get delusional confidence just from yourself in this highly atomized dysfunctional society, then more power to you though.

Nietzsche was literally an incel.

I agree he sounds bitter sometimes Leo’s views are coming from the perspective of someone who found dating hard because they’re shy and average looking, and who tried solving the problem through cold approach. Which does work but is an especially brutal way of trying to date. When I stopped doing pickup my views became a lot softer and I became a much happier person. I guess I still talk to women I don’t know sometimes but only when I feel like it. Regarding Nietzsche, he was literally an incel. Of course he’s brilliant but I don’t take his views on women seriously.

Not really, when you get a bit older and you can’t rely on your parents or peer group for support or backup, having a partner provides psychological comfort. It’s conditional and to an extent an illusion, but let’s say I get sick and can’t work for a relatively short period, like 1-2 months. My gf would take care of me or help me. If I become depressed and start being horrible to be around for long enough, of course she would leave. If I became disabled and couldn’t work forever, probably she would leave. But still this limited support is useful — you don’t have much else in this life given how society is set up.

Ezra Klein wants to make soft neoliberalism work better by adding some Keynesian elements. It’s still the same shill.