The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships

Book excerpt: The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships presents a data-driven dissection of sex, dating, and marriage by taking a deep dive into academic literature and stress testing strategies advocated by "marriage gurus" and self-styled pick-up artists. Combining insights from these disparate fields, we construct novel models detailing how humans secure partners and make long-term relationships work while exploring how these systems can be exploited to one's advantage in a world of broken dating markets and plummeting marriage rates. This guide acts as an instruction manual for mate acquisition strategies of all stripes, providing the foundation needed to excel at any number of tricky tasks-be it getting laid, writing a marriage contract, training a spouse, determining whether a partner cheated, exploring the world of non-monogamy, or finding the perfect long-term partner. As with all Pragmatist Foundation books, the proceeds from this book go to nonprofits. In line with the foundation's goals, the book attempts to explore the topic of human relationships without pushing the agenda of any particular ideological team.