Don't Compete with Guys on What They're Good At (Instead, Beat Them on What They're Not)

2018-02-04T22:58:58+00:00

Yo boys, probably one of my favorite articles by Chase in a hot minute. Here's the intro

Most battles are won off the field.

Whether by intimidation, alliance, subterfuge, or another means, the majority of battles that could have occurred never will. One way or another, one side convinced the other it was more to that side’s advantage not to go to war.

It is this way in warfare between countries, and it is this way in warfare between men. If you’ve ever approached a girl in a bar, only to have a man step over and announce he’s her boyfriend, and you then abandoned your attempt on the girl, that’s a conflict you simply aborted. Maybe it was because he seemed like a cool guy and you didn’t want to screw him over. Or the girl didn’t seem that interested and you figured it wasn’t worth the effort. Or he was a big and angry guy, and you figured it’d be easier to find a girl you wouldn’t have to fight a meathead for.

Regardless the reason, you never competed for that. You just made your exit.

99% of your battles with other men should be this way – won before it can ever turn into a genuine contest. You want to be the right mix of cool (so guys like you and respect you enough that they don’t want to screw you over) and intimidating (so guys know you will probably make them look like fools if they try to get one over on you socially).

You’ve met a girl, but now another guy with XYZ attractive quality you lack has appeared and is trying to win her away from you, for example. Or you have a girlfriend, but you’re worried because there is another man around her who has ABC attractive quality you don’t have.

Prevention is excellent. But once you’re in the situation and you’re under fire, you have to be able to deal with it, too.

Thus, the two strategies.

STRATEGY #1: BEAT HIM AT HIS OWN GAME This, of course, is the ultimate ego trip. Take a guy who is trying to beat you, and beat him instead on whatever he’s best at.

We might call this the ‘Alexandrian strategy’; Alexander the Great was a master at it. He would attack his opponent’s strongest point – whatever the country he was invading considered its greatest fortress, or it’s most powerful army, that’s what Alexander went for. It was a masterful strategy for quelling any desire to rise up against Alexander’s forces after he’d conquered an area; the beaten people did not feel like he had tricked them or snuck around them... they didn’t feel like he shouldn’t be king, and that the only reason he was was because he’d exploited some hole in their defense, which they could push him out and plug up. Instead, he beat them at their own game, fair and square. They knew he possessed superior troops, generals, and military technology, and there was little real hope to rise up against him. So they didn’t.

This is the strategy Niccolò Machiavelli recommends in The Prince. Beat an enemy at what he does not consider himself good at, and he will resent the loss, feel like you sneaked your way to victory, and look for a way to get his revenge. But beat him at his strongest point – beat him at the thing he prides himself as great at – and you will so utterly crush him he will never challenge you again.

It’s great strategy. Can work phenomenal in diplomacy, business, sports, games, you name it. Except... this strategy is rarely practical in romantic contests.

Men are just too different, their possible ways to get women too varied, and the learning curve and development time for different paths too steep. For instance, if you want to compete with a legendary DJ on fame/fans, it’s going to take you 10 years at least of back-breaking work to get there.

Or, the paths to compete directly with them on their best qualities are outright closed. For example, you’re never going to be able to compete on height with a guy who is 5” taller with you, even if you wear platform shoes and get your legs lengthened.

So, if you want to beat a man in a romantic contest, you are going to need a different strategy than the one Alexander employed to beat everyone from the Greeks to the Persians to the Indians.

Fortunately, we have another strategy to turn to, instead.

Title	Don't Compete with Guys on What They're Good At (Instead, Beat Them on What They're Not)
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	3
Comments	1
Date	February 4, 2018 10:57 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/seduction
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/7vacj6/dont_compete_with_guys_on_what_theyre_good_at/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/seduction/dont-compete-with-guys-on-what-theyre-good-at.1441146 https://theredarchive.com/post/1441146

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