The Myth of the High-Value Man
On dating women.
One of my high-school friends was the epitomic cliché of the asshole who dated girls who’d sworn they would “never date him.”
He wasn’t much taller than I was. He wasn’t smarter either. He had no ambition and he wasn’t rich.
But he was happy, confident, in touch with his feelings, and above all, he didn’t take women too seriously.
He must have dated 10–15 girls in the 3 years of high school we’ve spent together — and many more after that.
A far cry from the prophetical “High-Value Man” insisted upon by gurus on social media.
1. Clichés
The High-Value Man from 2023 isn’t so different from the man men thought they had to become to attract women before the publishing of Neil Strauss’ The Game in 2005.
Few books have had as strong of a cultural impact on the Western male psyche as The Game — even for those who didn’t read it.
The story is a real-life account of a short balding music journalist going from almost virgin to dating the most beautiful women on the planet by learning how to deal with them.
The book answered the millennial question (most) men had been wondering even before speech was invented: how do you get girls?
