The holidays are coming up: shit tests, comfort tests, and gifts [intermediate and above]

Understand the dynamics, win the moment

Everyone reading this should be familiar with shit tests and if you are not then quit this post and read. For 90% of guys, shit tests are a sticking point and this post is useless. For guys who’ve overcome most shit tests, however, comfort tests can be the bigger problem, especially for medium-term FWBs / lovers (relationship skills and pickup/seduction skills overlap some, but there's a lot of space separating them... it is possible to be better at one than the other). Once I saw a post titled, “Be careful of being too Alpha, Comfort Tests are far more lethal than Shit-Tests.” Good advice.

The holidays can present comfort tests, and the comfort test is easy to fail by either doing too much (many guys) or too little (players). Gifts are an element of retention. When you first start laying girls you don’t have to worry too much about keeping them around, but over time the vast majority of women consciously or subconsciously want to “advance” their relationship with a good guy. Most women also bond with guys who are fucking them and giving them orgasms. This is doubly true if you’re going bare. (Almost no one talks about the overwhelming, primal intimacy of unprotected sex.)

Like I said, it’s easy to f**k up through doing too much comfort (if you are a novice at f**king hot women, or more than one woman at a time, quit reading, go talk to girls, and get more experience). When I was a lad, I had the bad habit of thinking that grand romantic gestures and gifts would endear me to women, because that’s what I saw in movies and read in novels. Grand romantic gestures in real life totally flopped. Women love romantic gestures but only from a guy they consider to be higher status than they are.

Women love romantic gestures that the woman has earned and achieved. Romantic gestures and gifts are trophies for her. She has vanquished other women, who are her romantic rivals, and she has won the heart of a hard-to-get man, who is finally willing to show his affection towards her in the form of a gift. All those other women have LOST, and she has won. What a sweet victory for her. Women love to compete too, just in domains that are adjacent to the ones where men want to compete.

I wouldn't accept a judo black belt because I haven't earned it. I wouldn't accept a PhD diploma because I haven't earned it. Women don't really want gifts they haven't earned. They often will take free shit if someone foists valuable free shit into their hands, just like you probably would, but they might feel grimy about it. If they have any character, they will feel grimy, and quality girls avoid the grime. Normal people know that almost nothing valuable is "free," and valuable things that are "given away" have strings attached. When you give a woman unearned gifts, especially expensive ones, she thinks you're trying to bargain for sex with material goods... and there is already a profession devoted to that practice.

Only use gifts to reward good behavior. Never use gifts as a bargain, to curry favor, or as a trade. Fucking you on a regular basis is good behavior that should be positively reinforced.

I'm sure many of you are about to write comments about how giving things to chicks is BETA. In the wrong circumstances, it is. In the right circumstances, it's not. Context changes the perception of a given action. Guys at the start of their journey shouldn't worry about this at all. Guys with regular FWBs might think about it.

Giving a gift, especially an unexpected gift, can be an element of what Tom Torero calls "contrast game." A guy who is mostly aloof and does push-pull and is mostly focused on sex can improve his connection with a woman by sometimes (not often, but sometimes) doing the opposite.

Preferably unexpectedly.

The unexpected gift, especially from a guy she's been casually seeing yet who she worries will not commit to her, will get her wondering, "What does this mean?" She may ask her girlfriends about what her mystery man could mean. She thinks he's f**king other girls (he is) but he also gave her a necklace for Christmas. Does that mean he's serious about her? That he likes her more than other girls?

Think of it as the positive side of the hamster.

So if you have a woman you’ve been fucking somewhat regularly, consider getting her a small present for the holidays. Only give gifts to women you’ve been sleeping with semi-regularly. I’d say at least three times or for longer than a week, but there is no hard and fast rule. Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVES GIFTS TO WOMEN YOU HAVE NOT F**KED. Not now, not ever. You will lower your own value in doing so and will decrease the likelihood you will ever f**k her.

I put this in all caps because guys who are skimming this and about to write a moronic rebuttal comment need to see it.

The gift shouldn’t be as expensive as possible; it is truly the thought that counts. A stuffed animal or bar of chocolate or inexpensive necklace will do. If she thinks she’s earned the gift, she will value it more than she will a $10,000 engagement ring or an expensive, fancy, uncomfortable dinner with a guy trying to buy her love and her sex. The best gift I ever got a girl was for a girl who loved pickles and so I got her some for her birthday.

For girls who've been around longer or more consistently, high-quality but inexpensive jewelry can be good. For example the company Diamond Foundry makes cultivated diamonds. I know and you should know that diamonds are bullshit but most chicks have been brainwashed and marketed into loving them anyway. Diamond Foundry will sell necklaces with real gold and real diamonds far cheaper than conventional jewelers. If you know a guy in the jewelry business (I do), he may also be able to help you buy pre-owned necklaces, which are far cheaper than new ones. Don't go this route unless you have a trusted expert, however, as there is probably no industry except modeling that is more lie-filled than jewelry.

Ignore the above if you're short of cash. If you have lots of cash,  consider it.

Vibrators and other sex toys also make good gifts.

Anyway, a guy who delivers a little bit of comfort you will set yourself off from most player assholes. The key phrase is “a little bit.” One of the commenters to my earlier post said,

Shit Test – Too little masculine polarity.

Comfort Test – Too much masculine polarity.

Well-stated. I have been both and while you should err towards too much masculine polarity, you can overdo it. I have, and I made women pointlessly suffer by being too aloof. I've also made women drop off far faster than they would have otherwise.

If you are like me, you might get over your initial challenges and then decide that you’re too badass to deal with her feelings or to deign to remember birthdays or holidays.

This will both make her feel bad (as well as used) and reduce your performance. A couple dollars, a box, and an air of mystery will go a long way. A little comfort also goes a long way and you should be 80 – 90% aloof, mysterious asshole, but that tenderness will up your game. There is a good book, Mate: Become the Man Women Want, that uses the term “Tender Defender” for what women want and like. They want a guy who isn’t a p***y but who isn’t mean to them. When I was younger I went through phases where I was like, “I’m so fucking hard, I’m the boss, I don’t do fucking Valentine’s day,” dumb shit like that. That was a slightly better stance than giving girls I hadn’t fucked flowers in public... but it wasn’t ideal either.

If a girl is investing emotionally in a guy, she may start testing him for comfort, as she doesn't want to invest deeply in a guy who is going to hurt her or who just wants t ouse her for sex. Contrary to what some pickup guys say, girls DO get very emotionally invested in a guy... just a very small subset of guys who she picks to get emotionally invested in. Once she's become invested in a guy, she wants to protect herself, and she'll do that by testing to see if the guy is invested in her as well. That's the comfort test. If you don't comfort her when she needs comfort, she will disengage and bitterly call you a "player" or "fuck boy" or similar.