Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
I hadn't considered this, but I think you're spot on. It's a word that has become fashionable with the younger generations. I barely heard it when I was growing up, at least not when talking about humans. No doubt its popularity derives from the PUA movement.
You paid for dinner. You drove. You said "whatever you want is fine" every single time. All the effort, no expectations.
And she left anyway — probably for a guy who makes her pick up the pizza.
Painful. Also predictable. Her mind quietly concludes that anything requiring zero effort from her is worth exactly zero. You became a free sample, and free samples get taken for granted.
The 22 Rules flip the dynamic. Small shifts that get her investing effort, money, and time in you — until SHE'S the one afraid of losing YOU.
I'm beta as ****
That sounds vaguely familiar, I think I can dimly recall that. The people who formed the "original" pickup community were meeting on the internet during the '90s, so I still think that terminology became fashionable due to them (as applied to humans). Some ridicule wikipedia as a source, but this article is kind of interesting as a brief recap of PUA history:
I'm not like that
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.
The alpha and red pill, blue pill is overdone and childish. Before the movie the Matrix, this red pill / blue pill crap wasn't around. You need to have a high self respect and self worth for yourself. You need to have direction in life. You need to have your sh it in order (health/finance/crib) and you need to not place females on a pedestal. They must know that you will walk at one sign of major disrespect. All dudes can do this. All. Get to it.