Introduction I'm tired of the whole "what matters more, looks, money, status, or game?". Instead of asserting one category matters more than another, it is important to think of SMV as a curve that starts off with an exponential slope upwards, then later tapers off to a diminishing (but infinite) slope upwards.

There is no one attribute that takes hold over the others, we are the sum of our parts. All 4 should be developed, but in order to maximize results it is important to understand what stage you are in your self improvement journey: exponential returns or diminishing returns.

Exponential Returns A 350 lbs millionaire with decent game will have difficulty with women. By losing 170lbs he will experience an exponential increase in his results and might come to the conclusion that only looks matter and not money, status, or game. This is because only improving his looks gives him exponential returns, especially since he is already a millionaire with game. We see this flawed thinking on TRP all the time "I went from 2/10 looks to 6/10 and now women notice me; therefore looks are most important".

Diminishing Returns As someone who is already pretty muscular, working out has not yielded any more significant improvement in my results from my earlier years. My gym gains no longer lead to girl gains as they used to. It is the diminishing return phase as it relates to women. We see guys on TRP in this phase who might say "looks don't matter, only game", when they are already decent looking. Likewise, we see very poorly put together guys saying "game doesn't work, it is all about looks"

Infinite gains and diminishing returns Even though there are diminishing returns, there is no ceiling on how much your SMV can increase from a single category. Going from 10M/year in income to 10B/year will still increase your SMV, but it won't increase it proportionately. The quality of gold diggers you attract will increase slightly and you can date actresses, just like Elon Musk has done. However, each incremental dollar of wealth gain will do less and less. The guy making 10M/year still has access to 10/10s, even if his bitches aren't as famous the bitches a billionaire can have. With this framework of a theoretically unlimited increase in SMV, it is possible to be good at just one category and have success. But because of diminishing returns, it will be a more difficult path than just being a well-rounded guy.

The looks, money, status debate is stupid, it is just common sense For men, looks generally comes first for who we want to bang. But let's be honest, even a girl with an average looking face but an amazing body (through working out) and well put together would be totally bangable. Once a girl is a bangable 7-9, being feminine or working on her personality will make generally make her more appealing than a 10/10 bitch. The same thing is true for men, except we arguably have more things we can work on.

A guy who is pretty well put together, masculine, financially secure, and respected does not need to be particularly amazing at one particular thing to already be ahead of most men in SMV. Being slightly ahead the curve in terms of looks, money, status, and game can be achieved by the majority of men through pure effort and it will put you in the top 10%.

So just put your effort into where you will receive the most returns and stop claiming looks or money or status or game is the only thing that's important.