What do we say to someone we’ve never met? How do we know what she’ll like? What does she find funny? What is she interested in? We don’t know. There is no magic pickup line that makes every girl of every age, race, location, personal history, and socioeconomic status drop her panties and bend over the nearest chair; but by the same circular logic that requires every story to have a beginning, every romance begins when two strangers meet. When you see a girl you like, just start talking. (Two tips: smiling is good, and it helps if you save negative or depressing topics for later in the conversation.) Think of that pretty girl in the coffee shop this morning. You looked at her, admired her beauty, thought about how you’d like to talk to her, and then you walked away. If you had said something—anything—even something so simple as “hello, are you having a good day?” who knows what would have happened, but you opted for certainty, and as you knew would happen, now your chance is gone. But what if you had said hello? What if you had said you liked her shoes, and then she said she liked your hat. And what if then you offered to buy her coffee, and for some reason, she accepted, and then the two of you sat down and chatted away like newborn Buddhas until she gave you her number and said she’d really like to talk to you again. And then who knows? Maybe that’s the woman you’d fall in love with, marry, and have children with—children who show to their grandchildren pictures of you and her smiling, laughing, getting whipped by the wind on a mountaintop in Yosemite. Look, I know approaching is hard, but it is the single most important action in all of the Venusian arts. You miss every shot you don’t take. Women are diverse and beautiful creatures, and their hearts may be won through surprising and myriad means. True, there are many women who will blow you out—who will walk away in the middle of your sentence, who will act so cold and bitchy that you’ll want to die, having lost all faith in humanity. But if you do not approach, you will never have a chance to meet the girl who’s waiting for a genuinely nice and slightly awkward boy like you.