Now this is just plain chilling. As I read the Murakami excerpt (see link) I was nodding my head and then when I read Vox’s following summary I felt a shiver through my bones:
What is interesting is that Murakami accurately describes many of the attributes of a Sigma decades before the concept was articulated. The young illustrator is solitary, but successful with women despite being physically unremarkable, is likable and makes friends easily, but has little interest in a social life. He possesses unusual motivations and preferences, has strong willpower and a high level of self-discipline, and exists almost completely outside the normal social hierarchies. His interests fall on the obsessive side. He understands women on a level few men do, but has very little interest in them beyond their sexual utility and is more inclined to view them with contempt than place them on a pedestal. Relationships, both friendly and romantic, are open to him, but he instinctively shies away from them.
Vox was the first guy to popularise the notion of sigma (maybe he invented the term, I’m not sure). I was immediately drawn to it because it put a word and concept onto something I’d felt my whole adult life. This is his most striking elucidation of it. Bravo.
