After my last painful breakup, I finally bought a few books about dating to see where things went wrong: Doc Love's The System, David Deangelo's Double Your Dating e-Book, and this one. In the process, I learned a lot of extremely important concepts that every man should know. The painful breakup was over two years ago and it was, indeed, the last.
The System teaches several critical things about filtering out bad women. It can save you a ton of time and money by "testing" girls to see if they're using you and/or straight up toxic, despite their blinding beauty. It also has a lot of great info on being mysterious and challenging through the course of an entire relationship to keep a woman interested. For example, after getting a number (and until she asks to be your girlfriend), Doc says to wait 5-9 days to call -- and no weekends. The users and abusers forget your name or never answer. The good ones are thrilled to hear from you. He also teaches to always let the woman do the touching and mushy talk before you even think about doing either (and never really get mushy). Good stuff.
Deangelo's material seemed to contradict Doc Love in a lot of ways. He focuses more on _what_ you do or say than _when_ you do or say it. He emphasizes that women are genetically programmed to respond to men who are in control and not emotional (i.e. they're cocky & funny and never needy, sad, or angry), and ultimately how to completely avoid the romantic suicide of acting like a wuss. While Doc Love left out a lot of details on exactly how to behave around women, Deangelo nailed it on the head with the sort of "unpredictable and upbeat alpha male" concept. Learning both authors' sides has made a huge difference in my dating life and made me very aware of where I screwed up before. Being "nice" gets them out of the room; being cocky & funny gets them on top of you. I say it from experience, to my own amazement.
Back to "How To Succeed With Women." There are several good points throughout the book, but I feel like it's contaminated with a dangerous amount of bad advice (actually teaching wussy behavior). What really threw me were the parts about touching women early on to let them know you're interested (she already knows you like her and you may be on very thin ice if she hasn't touched you beforehand), how to apologize to a woman if you ever offend her, and that you should "promise" to never do what offended them again. What!? This sort of butt-kissing will quickly lead you to being dominated by a woman who will dump you as soon as someone with cajones shows up.
I believe a "real man" constantly pursues his goals and has fun along the way. He works to feel accomplished and complete, and is independent as a result. This man does not go chasing after women like we see in every stupid Hollywood movie -- he talks to them playfully and _lets_ the good ones (or good one) into his exciting life. He's respectful, but still calls it like he sees it and doesn't plead or apologize when somebody is offended by his honesty. And unlike the other two books, in my opinion, this one simply misses the mark too many times.
