I dig this book, a lot. I agree with the premises laid out by Mark Manson and I like the presentation. As u/distantWinter comments I feel the change happening within myself. I want to replace all of my shit behavior with true confidence as outlined by Manson, but more to come.
In terms of 'how RP is this book', so far, it's in-line with what i've come to appreciate and understand about our community. my main and favorite piece of pure RP literature is Year One of the Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi. there's a lot of intellectual overlap between the two, and thus far, I feel like this book is an excellent extension and different representation of many of the ideas expressed both by Tomassi and other contributors to the main TRP forum.
CHAPTER I - REALITY
women are attracted and arouse by both the physical and/or psychological. as men, we're usually driven by our sexual response to a women. with women, the driving force is the psychological response to us as men.
the implication is that it's not enough to look fucking great if you're a non-confident or over-invested bitch. women want a high status man. Manson posits the root or main 'mover' for a man is his behavior; paraphrasing: "women don't distinguish social status or being an "alpha male" through material possessions... women judge it by behavior... social status (and therefore attractiveness) is determined by how you behave around other people, how other people behave around you, and how you treat yourself". boom. women are turned on by being wanted, by being desired, and the finnesse is appropriate and honestly communicating this desire in a socially acceptable way (i aint tryna end up jail or derail my career through lewd and stupid comments). again, quoting directly from the content: "my belief is that women have been naturally selected to choose high status men based on their behavior first, and their looks and accomplishments second". completely agree.
the implications for the above nugget of truth are monumental. i couldn't agree more with the premise. i've been mentally cognizant of these ideas and trying APPLY what i've read in my daily life. everytime i read something on TRP saying "i did x in y time span and the results are incredible!1!1!11!!" i always take that with a grain of salt, however, for me personally over the past 6 days I have really felt a difference, both within myself and how I am received by my coworkers, and to a lesser extent, and this is where the really proof will be, in the women i run into on a day-to-day basis.
three fundamentals: (ch. 7, btw): 1) living based on our values, honest living. 2) being comfortable with our intentions, honest action. 3) expressing our sexuality freely (honest communication). the implications are, that, through honest living, you'll create an attractive lifestyle that encapsulates what you want as a man, the things that are important to you, and working to either build or maintain that reality. the responsibility is on ourselves as men to chisel our own realities. a higher quality lifestyle, Manson says we'll attract higher quality women. honest action: "all fear around your sexuality is a result of feeling inferior or unworthy. If you're afraid to approach a woman, it's because somewhere inside you are more invested of her opinion of you than you are in your own opinion of yourself". dude, fuck that, fuck what anyone thinks of me other than myself. get out there and chat up every woman.
women are fare more intuitive than men when it comes to emotions (curse of the hamster). women will naturally sniff out and sense the incongruousness behind your actions if you're not in-line with what you say. they can sniff this shout over text messages, it's pretty impressive. result? YOU need to be the mental warrior to keep your game tight.
manson defines success as = maximizing happiness with whichever woman/women we prefer. success is attained by leveraging the three fundamentals, which entails knowing yourself, your own wants and desires, and fighting through that pain period.
this comment is getting much longer than i anticipated, so i'll just answer the following:
through confident displays or communications of vulnerability. "a man comfortable being vulnerable will behave with confidence. and when desire is shown with confidence, it is attractive. when desire is shown with neediness and a lack of confidence, it is unattractive." boom.