"How I Made Sure No Woman Ever Friend-Zoned Me Again"

She calls you when her car breaks down. When she needs help moving. When some guy she's actually dating treats her badly.

You're the listener. The reliable one. The guy who would treat her so much better, if she'd just open her eyes.

She won't. You trained her to see you as the low-effort option — the friend who requires zero risk and zero investment. Every favor dug the hole deeper.

The "22 Rules" break the pattern. You'll stop auditioning for a role she already cast and become the man she chases instead. It starts with Rule 1.

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Every sentence a paragraph?

Atom Smasher

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What's with this new influx of people who write every single sentence as a paragraph?

Don't they realize it makes it hard to read?

It's like talking to someone who says, "Umm" after every sentence.

This seems like a relatively new phenomenon.

It used to be that guys would throw a massive wall of text up on the screen.

There would be absolutely no paragraphs used, and these posts were way too much work to read.

Now guys are doing this thing with every sentence being a paragraph.

Isn't this a little hard to read, and distracting?

I believe they are doing this because their actual thoughts are disjointed.

Therefore that disjointedness is reflected in their writing style.

Whatever the reason, it's distracting and shows poor communication skills.

Paragraphs serve to arrange thoughts and to present them in a meaningful manner.

It is assumed that in a paragraph, the other sentences contained within support a certain concept or point.

But when each sentence is a paragraph, each one is a separate entity and one sentence does not support or elaborate upon another.

In other words, they are equally weighted.

This makes for very difficult reading, and for miscommunication.

I wonder how they got through school writing this way.

A massive amount of information is lost due to this inefficient and inaccurate style of writing.

Paragraphs are an integral, indispensable part of written communications.

They count enormously in how one's points are received.

When you write like this, your points become lost and stagnant.

Don't they?

I think they do.

I'll have to think of a name for this style of "writing", and for those who use it.

It's gotten so bad that I rarely even read what they write anymore.

I usually skim their posts because the way they write forces me to work too hard.

I have to mentally put their sentences together into paragraphs in order to extract accurate meaning.

It is not fair to the reader to foist that work upon him.

The purpose of paragraphs is to arrange your thoughts, convey them accurately, and to facilitate one sentence supporting another.

Giving each sentence equal weight cannot possibly convey your intended meaning.

This bad habit should have been corrected decades ago in school.

It is perhaps true, however, that this habit has been picked up recently.

Possibly because of texting and social media.

Whatever the cause, it hurts you and it hurts the reader as it masks the intended meaning of your communication.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.
 

"She Made Her Decision Before You Finished Your Sentence"

Three seconds. That's how long it took. Your shoes. Your posture. The way you held your drink. Whether you looked at the floor or looked at her.

She already filed you away. Interesting. Boring. Safe. Bold. Before you even opened your mouth.

Everything you say after that is just her confirming what she already decided.

So stop rehearsing lines. Fix the first three seconds. Stand tall. Look up. Smile like you mean it. Walk like you belong wherever you're standing.

The words come later. The impression comes first.

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SamTheHobit

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Thanks for your wisdom atom smasher.

It's definitely something I need to improve on.

But I think it's better than a never ending wall of text.

See what I did there?
 

"She Wants a Man, Not a Boy"

You asked her if she wanted to grab coffee. Then you asked if the time worked. Then you asked if the place was okay. Then you asked if she'd prefer tea.

Four questions. Four chances for her to say no. Four signals that you're terrified of making a decision.

Plan it. Pick the place. Pick the time. Tell her where to meet you. She'll either show up or she won't.

Either way, you look like a man instead of a scared little boy.

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Mike32ct

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I'm probably guilty of this. I find very LONG paragraphs painful to read, and I compensate by using very short paragraphs. It's funny you should mention this. Someone editing my writing at work combined a few short paragraphs into one big one. Anyway, good post. Thanks.
 

logicallefty

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I got in the habit of writing that way from an idiot woman I work with. If you wrote a regular paragraph she would selectively only read what she wanted out of it.. and then say she didn't notice the rest and try to wiggle her way out of being accountable for the parts you said that she didn't want to deal with. So I started writing the one liners so they would be nice and noticeable for her. She would also complain if you wrote too much. she was so bad that I actually have sent her spreadsheets that she refused to look at because there were too many colors in them and they bothered her eyes. So anyway the habit of one paragraph lines has carried over outside of work..
 

Atom Smasher

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SamTheHobit said:
Thanks for your wisdom atom smasher.

It's definitely something I need to improve on.

But I think it's better than a never ending wall of text.

See what I did there?
You

rascal

!
 

"So, What Do You Do for Fun?"

She asks it casually, mid-sip. And you feel the floor open up, because the honest answer is work, gym, and a couple shows you're half-watching.

Women rarely say this out loud, but a man with a life is attractive before he says a word. The guy who spent Saturday deep-sea fishing and came back with photos and a story — he walks in already interesting.

The "22 Rules" pushed me to build a life worth talking about. Turns out the fastest way to be interesting to women is to be interested in your own life first.

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Atom Smasher

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I

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zekko

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I think we should all post in haiku.
 

salinechow

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I think its about aesthetics.

Broken up paragraphs looks less daunting to the brain in the world of text, and chat messengers. People even truncate words nowadays.

I think this first started in email. In an email you are not supposed to space paragraphs but only indent them. I think when email first started to take hold as inter office communication and then later, global communication, it became courtesy to keep email short to avoid scrolling and printed waste. Large screen resolutions made for a lot of scrolling. Printers took a min or more to print a page.

Furthermore, thread like forums such as ours where there is limited on the fly manipulation of the text to suit the reader, the writer tries to compensate by writing what would make it easier for HIM to read.

I break up paragraphs even when I know its grammatically incorrect to make it easier on the reader to grasp the concept of the thought.


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For comparison:

I think its about aesthetics.
Broken up paragraphs looks less daunting to the brain in the world of text, and chat messengers. People even truncate words nowadays.
I think this first started in email. In an email you are not supposed to space paragraphs but only indent them. I think when email first started to take hold as inter office communication and then later, global communication, it became courtesy to keep email short to avoid scrolling and printed waste. Large screen resolutions made for a lot of scrolling. Printers took a min or more to print a page.
Furthermore, thread like forums such as ours where there is limited on the fly manipulation of the text to suit the reader, the writer tries to compensate by writing what would make it easier for HIM to read.
I break up paragraphs even when I know its grammatically incorrect to make it easier on the reader to grasp the concept of the thought.



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Even worse is this:

I think its about aesthetics.Broken up paragraphs looks less daunting to the brain in the world of text, and chat messengers. People even truncate words nowadays. I think this first started in email. In an email you are not supposed to space paragraphs but only indent them. I think when email first started to take hold as inter office communication and then later, global communication, it became courtesy to keep email short to avoid scrolling and printed waste. Large screen resolutions made for a lot of scrolling. Printers took a min or more to print a page.Furthermore, thread like forums such as ours where there is limited on the fly manipulation of the text to suit the reader, the writer tries to compensate by writing what would make it easier for HIM to read.I break up paragraphs even when I know its grammatically incorrect to make it easier on the reader to grasp the concept of the thought.
 

"She Liked You in March. It's October Now."

Attraction runs on a clock.

She flirted for weeks. Touched your arm. Found reasons to be alone with you. And you were careful. Respectful. Waiting for the right moment.

The moment had a shelf life. It expired around month two, and by the time you asked her out, she'd quietly filed you under "little brother."

One of the hardest lessons inside the 22 Rules: women rarely wait. Interest either grows or it decays, and nothing decays it faster than a man who never moves.

Make the move while she's still inventing reasons to be near you.

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mangotot

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The opening post was extremely easy to read because of the small screen size. That is because I am accessing the forum on the phone.

More and more people are using the phone to access the net, it explains why the use of single paragraphs: easier to read and easier to type. It is for practical reasons rather then dumbing down.
 

VladPatton

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Aah...the dreaded one-liners!
 

"She's Out of Your League"

You've said it a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. And every time you say it, you train your brain to freeze the next time she walks into the room.

Leagues are a myth invented by guys who are scared of women.

She's a person. She has bad breath in the morning. She picks songs she can't sing in the shower. She overthinks her own texts.

Walk over. Say something. The league dissolves the second you open your mouth.

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