It never hit me till it was too late. All those texting games, the pickup lines, the strategies, all of it, is setting yourself up for failure.

If you are going to have a relationship with a girl, do you really think texting her in 5 minutes versus waiting an hour is going to make a difference? No one can respect someone who overthinks things and tries to manipulate an organic process like building a relationship.

I was in a relationship with a girl and I could never enjoy myself because the game defined me. Every time she asked me a question, sent me a text, or did anything with me, it was always about me racking my mind for the right answer, the Alpha answer. Now I know I should have gone with what I wanted to do, because it didn't matter if I had the "right" answer. What mattered is that she liked me and gave me a chance.

I've read hours of pickup literature and I would be lying if I didn't say it helped me understand social dynamics and get over my social awkwardness. But pickup is like training wheels and eventually you need to get rid of them and take responsibility for who you really are.

Every day I get 1 to 3 numbers. I go on 1 to 2 first dates every week. And every Friday and Saturday night I go on as many instadates as I can fit in. All of this is fun, but ultimately, it is artificial. If you find someone that cares for you and you care for them, stay with them.

So text that girl when you want to text her. Set up that date when you want to set it up. Do what you want to do. Because the only failure is not being yourself, for better or for worse.

In economics, there are price floors and price ceilings. This is when the government doesn't believe the free market can make an optimal equilibrium, so they impose things like subsidies, minimum wage, and tariffs. Whether you agree politically or not doesn't matter, the economics shows that this creates something called dead weight loss and results in a less than optimal outcome.

Pickup lines, texting games, these are the price ceilings and price floors of the relationship world. They are artificial constructs we put up because we think we know what is better than what will happen naturally. But ultimately, we are making things worse off than had we let things take a natural progression.

So read up on pickup and seduction, understand yourself, your characteristics, and how you can improve, but at the end of the day you should be doing what you feel is right instead of what you think may be the right answer.