Part One : Self-centered whining (if tl;dr skip to Part Two!)

They say the 1st step to getting better is admitting you have a problem and need help. Well, tonight I admitted to myself that I can't meet and attract women at a bar or night club. I'm so introverted and socially maladjusted that approaching strangers--in front of a bunch of other strangers--is simply beyond me. It only took me 10 years of going to bars alone, talking to no one, and then leaving depressed to realize it was never going to happen.

I've been dogged by a fantasy that if only the rest of my life were "together", the dating aspect would naturally and effortlessly fall into place. Since I recently lost a lot of weight, I expected my confidence to increase as much as my waist circumference decreased, but I couldn't even muster a, "So . . . come here often," to a girl sitting alone a couple seats down the bar. Talk about a soft target!

Part 2: actual Game questions (in no particular order)

  1. What is Step 1 in developing social competence from almost nothing?
  2. How does one approach alone when almost no one under 40 goes out alone anymore? Doesn't being demonstrably friendless indicate low value?
  3. If one does engage a set, how does he overcome the shame, guilt, and awkwardness generated by the obvious subtext of that conversation being his desire for sex with his interlocutors?
  4. In an arena in which subtlety is the rule and most communication is indirect, how and how much can mild autism be overcome, specifically as it relates to the difficulty of interpreting the non-literal and the desire to go straight from Point A to Point B?