Personally I’m not convinced that your analogy is completely isomorphic to the real world… the only way to improve your status/social skills is to hit on women? That doesn’t sound right to me. You might read a book that’s supposed to be about social effectiveness in general, like The Charisma Myth, before hitting on women. In general, I suspect there are lots of ways to improve your “tickling skills” that don’t involve “tickling people”. For example, lifting weights and buying more fashionable clothes will make you more attractive. Finding women who share personality characteristics with you and making friends on them (without making moves on them) will improve your model of women and help you empathize with them. Working a job that requires you to talk to strangers a lot will make it easier to talk to strangers. Better yet, do a job that requires you to start conversations with and befriend strangers (salesperson?) Or find a close friend who is also single & looking and go out together (it’s easier to be in a friendly, social mood with friends around). (If you don’t have a suitable friend, I suggest developing the social skills & connections to find such a friend before trying to meet women… in social skills terms, making such a friend is level 3 and finding a girlfriend is level 10.) Etc.
Personally I’m not convinced that your analogy is completely isomorphic to the real world… the only way to improve your status/social skills is to hit on women? That doesn’t sound right to me. You might read a book that’s supposed to be about social effectiveness in general, like The Charisma Myth, before hitting on women. In general, I suspect there are lots of ways to improve your “tickling skills” that don’t involve “tickling people”. For example, lifting weights and buying more fashionable clothes will make you more attractive. Finding women who share personality characteristics with you and making friends on them (without making moves on them) will improve your model of women and help you empathize with them. Working a job that requires you to talk to strangers a lot will make it easier to talk to strangers. Better yet, do a job that requires you to start conversations with and befriend strangers (salesperson?) Or find a close friend who is also single & looking and go out together (it’s easier to be in a friendly, social mood with friends around). (If you don’t have a suitable friend, I suggest developing the social skills & connections to find such a friend before trying to meet women… in social skills terms, making such a friend is level 3 and finding a girlfriend is level 10.) Etc.