Make a list of 43 things I know very little about, & then learn at least 3 things about each of them

-He was locked up in an asylum because his parents thought he was mad to want to be a writer
-He was a song writer before being a writer
-His book “The Pilgrimage” is autobiographical

I read “The Pilgrimage” and “The Alchemist” about seven years ago and am re-reading them now so I thought I’d find out a little about the author.

I’m not going to list specific things – actively seeking to find out MORE about a particular thing would suggest that I already know a few things about it. I’m just going to see what I stumble across, and if I’ve never heard of it and it intrigues me, I’ll take a look.

I had no idea that those first impressions and judgments men and women make of each other are dictated by the laws of “Ladder Theory”. I find it quite amusing. I’ve learned that:

-Women divide men into “Potential” and “Never” categories based on whether they’d have sex with them or not. There are ranks within these categories, creating two separate “ladders”.
-The longer a friendship lasts, the less chances of a guy getting into the “Potential” section.
-Men only have one ladder – they rate all their female acquaintances based on sexual attractiveness and other qualities on one “ladder”. The top of the ladder is for the girls they have relationships with, the bottom only for those he has no sexual interest in.
-According to this theory, men are at a disadvantage because they are expected to have all their needs satisfied in one relationship, whereas women have multiple relationships to satisfy different needs.

Other theories are floating around and I might be interested in reading up on them.

So – do I buy “Ladder Theory”? Not really. I really do think there is only one “ladder” for guys, but I think it’s the same for women. I think of all guys I talk to as potential sexual partners – and it’s not true that the closer I get to a male friend, the less likely I am to have sex with him. In fact, the reverse has been true in several situations – the closer I got to a friend, the more I found myself attracted to him. Ladder Theory advises guys to only get “closer” and be “nice” once they’ve got a good rank as a “Potential”. If that advice had been followed, I’d probably never have fallen for a few of the guys that I’ve really liked.

However, I don’t think that men and women have identical “ladders”. I agree that men value sexual attractiveness a lot more than women – I think women will desire men they feel emotionally close to more than men they find physically attractive, but men NEED to be really attracted a woman before the emotional aspect even comes into play.