Black Pill · Dating · Mindset

The Off-Ramp in Pickup

I had a very interesting consultation session a few weeks ago. It centered on leaving the pickup scene behind at or perhaps slightly after your peak, and the risk of missing this window. As I have real-world friends who are in the corresponding age range, i.e. roughly their mid-30s to early 40s, this was a topic I had spent some time thinking about. I am familiar with real-life stories of guys who have missed this window, some because they did not manage to get to the point where a woman of the caliber they were interested in would want to settle down with them, but also two or three cases of guys who had been doing very well for themselves, yet kept chasing after the next thot in shiny clothing. There was always a woman around who was at least similarly attractive as the last one, until there no longer was one.

In the aforementioned consultation session, the guy I spoke to brought up Tom Torero as a negative example. This is a PUA who committed suicide at around his 40th birthday a few years ago. Tom Torero is a very good negative example. While I do not think that it is the best idea to build an identity around picking up women, and I also do not think that suicide is necessarily the inevitable conclusion if you do, this sad case nonetheless illustrates that you cannot have an external source of validation. This does not just apply to pedestalizing women. For instance, I know a former athlete who had aspirations of becoming a top-tier professional. This did not work out, and I think he briefly played in the second or third-highest soccer league in Germany. The end was that he spent too much time sitting on the bench as he was not competitive enough. Years later, he seemed to have become an alcoholic.

Moving on from the extreme cases of guys who chased women, or some other lofty goal, to the detriment of everything else, there is still a trap for guys who do not have a shot at stardom, or do not delude themselves that they do. While it is the case that you can remain competitive in the sexual market place well into your 30s, with a bit of luck in the genetic lottery, it is the case that you, too, will get older. Probably by the time you enter your early to mid-30s, any woman sizing you up will have a pretty good idea of your potential in life. If your career has languished for a decade then probably there is not a high chance that you will achieve breakout success and double your salary anytime soon. On the other hand, even very successful guys are likely quite close to their peak in their mid-30s. In fact, there are plenty of competitive careers where you can get close to the peak by your late 20s. This applies to fields like investment banking or consulting where you only get to do more of the same once you reach the rank of Managing Director or Partner, respectively. The same is true in an engineering career, where there is no up-or-out principle. In the industry, we speak of “terminal positions”, i.e. jobs at which nobody will push you to advance. However, those are also jobs from which on there is only limited upside. You can become a senior engineer within three or four years and it is entire possible that your career will completely stall at this point. Plenty of guys retire at this level.

If you get close to your peak, then your attractiveness in the dating market will not get any higher. In fact, if you think you are hot shit because you got a promotion to a senior position at 27, then perhaps this is, assuming that you want to settle down, also the time where you should make haste and lock down that hot 21-year-old who has been telling you about wanting to start a family because she has no interest in a career. The alternative is to run in place, jumping from one short-term relationship to another, while your overall sexual marketplace value first stagnates and then slowly starts to decline.

There is an off-ramp in pickup, and depending on your life circumstances, you will probably encounter it in your late 20s if there is nothing particularly remarkable about you, but only in exceptional cases will you have until your late-30s or perhaps even your early 40s. If you miss it, you may be in for a rude awakening. There is a particular tragedy unfolding there as well, if guys want to keep up their old lifestyle. This means that they keep chasing after women, but their quality gets worse and worse. For instance, a guy who used to fuck college students will pull single mothers in their 30s, and tell himself that he still got it or that these women are every bit as hot as the prime-caliber sluts he used to pull back in the day. It’s rough. There is a time at which you probably want to get out of dating, and you better not miss it.

59 thoughts on “The Off-Ramp in Pickup

  1. Aaron, if you’d be so kind, would you clarify something about the athlete friend? When you say that he was competitive enough, do you mean that he didn’t train as much as he should have, or that he just wasn’t talented enough to play more in that level?

    1. He was not talented enough, but it is also possible that he did not have the drive. It was a case of him having been the biggest fish in a small pond. I did not perceive him as a hard worker either, and this is probably not the best starting position if you want to succeed. As I was typing this, I recalled some other guy I went to school with who had picked up ice hockey early in his life and was apparently considered a rising star. He was also really arrogant and used to boast about his future professional career in Canada, and making millions. To be fair, he did play in the German national U18 league, which we all found impressive back then. On the other hand, his professional results were rather dismal, as I just learned because I found a page that collected player stats. He spent most of his career playing in the third league, with a brief stint in the second league and one single game in the national league. He surely achieved more than most ice hockey players, but at that level, he probably barely made ends meet. He also missed the off-ramp, unlike a former colleague of mine who played basketball professionally at the national level in Eastern Europe, and left the sport in his mid-to-late 20s.

  2. The only viable options are to time that off-ramp somewhat precisely and settle down with as best as you can get, or go MGTOW. The former strategy could well lead to ending up in the latter camp if you choose wrong, for example, while going straight to MGTOW inevitably leads to lower and lower quality before ending up a lone monk. Perhaps a third option is to make it financially and turn to not merely escorts and the like, but to create your own POV porn business where you hire cute/hot up and coming or established thots to give you blowjobs and bounce on your schlong while they call you step-daddy.

    1. Also, I’ve noticed that even if some guys stay physically fit and take care of themselves into their mid 30s to 40s that age just starts to take over at some point (obviously). What I mean is that the manosphere sold the lie that men age like fine wine, but the truth is that for many this is not the case. Sure, you could make up for it in other ways but I’m taking about looks. For one, accumulated sun damage starts to take its toll if you haven’t been diligent about sunscreen your entire life. Then there’s the fact that a giant percentage of men will either start crowning or having their hair recede. Perhaps you can use a retinoid on your face to significantly slow/reverse signs of aging, and you can use a DHT blocker with minoxidil and even get a hair transplant if it gets too bad, but eventually the hair will start greying and you’ll have to cover that up etc. I think the guy who promoted the whole men age like fine wine thing the hardest, Rollo Tomassi, looks like pure shit these days. While many guys like Tim Pool, for example, never even had a chance looks-wise.

    2. For one, accumulated sun damage starts to take its toll if you haven’t been diligent about sunscreen your entire life.

      Once I discovered this, I wondered why nobody tells us this stuff until its too late. Basically, if you’re a guy and started using sunscreen early enough, you’d have an extra 5-10 years to bang hot chicks without your looks being an issue.

    3. Yeah, I would say unprotected UV exposure followed by smoking are probably the two most detrimental things for you skin. If you avoid the above and use tretinoin (just get the generic shit off the grey market without a prescription) then you’ll pretty much look relatively much younger than your peers easily into your 50s.

    4. I’ve been using retinol for 3 weeks now. Will report back in 3 and 6 months.

      I’m following the progress using age detection tools, they’re very good at that. I have been reading a lot of studies on retinol etc, and I’m pretty proficient now at knowing exactly what change removes how many years.

      I can go into Photoshop and remove aging signs (from skin alone) and bring a face down to 29 years old. So I know exactly what a 20% change looks like what a 40% change looks like etc.

      Btw a 50% change brings you down to 35 and a 70% change brings you down to 32 or so.

      Studies on retinol alone find up to 50% change. Combinations aren’t studied as much but I think it can be up to 70%.

      If I don’t see enough results in 3 months I might bump to a prescription tretinoin. So far just OTC stuff.

    5. Related topic. For those not in the know, what we’re discussing with Pickernanny here is mostly cosmetic. Basically you can have a face that looks younger because your skin is like that of someone much younger. Your face isn’t everything, but it’s the main determinant of how old you look to people.

      However, actual age-reversal is also a thing. Where you’re biologically younger (which in turn also makes you look younger as well). Some age-reversal is already here (about 10 years right now), which means you can be biologically 35 while you’re chronologically 45.

      But more significant changes are coming within a decade… So basically:

      – You can simply look younger as a bridge until the significant age reversal stuff comes
      — You can use simple skincare to appear younger for now
      — (If you can afford it) some of the current actual age-reversal stuff

      But eventually the substantial age-reversal stuff is going to come. If we’re lucky there might even be no gaps. Like you can use current stuff to stay looking 30-35 until the more substantial age-reversal stuff comes, and then use that.

      Current age reversal stuff, short summary video by David Sinclair:

    6. Just to clarify I’m talking about using prescription grade retinoids vs OTC retinol, the former of which is multiple times stronger and has the most compelling studies behind it. The age reversal stuff I can’t comment on. I saw that Brian Johnson guy on youtube a bunch before I blocked it from my feed, simply because I got tired of seeing some guy that looked pretty much his age claiming that he spent millions of dollars to be 18 years old again.

    7. Yes, most studies are about prescription-grade stuff, but not all. That’s why I’m a good guinea pig about the OTC stuff. I’ll report back in 3 months. If it’s not working well enough, As I said, I’ll bump up to prescription if it isn’t working well.

      Yes Brian Johnston is annoying as fuck. Watch actual scientists like David Sinclair, or look at some Peter Diamandis interviews.

    8. that Brian Johnson guy on youtube a bunch before I blocked it from my feed, simply because I got tired of seeing some guy that looked pretty much his age claiming that he spent millions of dollars to be 18 years old again.

      Yes, I had the same response. This 45 year old looks like a 45 year old, and he brags he spent millions to acheive it… what… the… fuck 😀

      Peter Diamandis is 60 and looks 45 to me;
      And David Sinclair is 55 and looks 45 (verified him with age checking tools as well, he does look 45, and these tool are accurate from all my tests).

      Just to clarify I’m talking about using prescription grade retinoids vs OTC retinol

      I wasn’t sure why you’re clarifying, when you already mentioned you’re talking about prescription. Was it in reference to my discussion that our discussion is merely cosmetic?

      The same is true with prescription tretinoin. It’s still just cosmetic, doesn’t actually reverse the age of your face.

    9. I watched the Sinclair video you linked to. I remember seeing that guy on Joe Rogan talking about Nicotinamide years ago. The one compound he’s taking about sounds like something his brother is going to patent and market perhaps. It would probably be pretty difficult to persuade your doctor to prescribe you with Metformin without a diagnosis of diabetes, so you’d have to come across that by other means. The other ones he mentions might be worth looking into. I’ve already been taking D3/K2 since right before the general public became consciously aware of covid.

    10. “I wasn’t sure why you’re clarifying, when you already mentioned you’re talking about prescription. Was it in reference to my discussion that our discussion is merely cosmetic?

      The same is true with prescription tretinoin. It’s still just cosmetic, doesn’t actually reverse the age of your face.”

      Just because for a while I myself wasn’t aware of the distinction. Most retinol products on the market are overpriced and a lot of them are probably even bunk. You’d probably have more luck with OTC 0.1% Differin gel and for much cheaper too. But even if we’re talking strictly cosmetic, why waste 3-6 months experimenting on yourself when you can just go straight in with the good shit?

    11. Also, I’m not sure what Sinclair’s stance is on intermittent fasting (he mentions it in the video) but it may just be a tool he uses to achieve a slight caloric deficit. Even among the IF crowd they’ve seemed to have changed their stance from meal timing being super important to pretty much admitting that frequency doesn’t matter so much as just being in a slight deficit. So, in theory it’s easy to say “exercise and don’t overeat” but a ton of people have issues with just doing that. I’d say id your foundations aren’t in check i.e., diet, exercise, sleep, lifestyle etc. then I would get those handled first before adding in supplements and cosmetic stuff. And I say this to benefit anyone reading.

    12. “I’d say id your foundations aren’t in check i.e., diet, exercise, sleep, lifestyle etc. then I would get those handled first before adding in supplements and cosmetic stuff. And I say this to benefit anyone reading.”

      There are caveats to this, of course. Like, if you have aggressive balding you may want to get that under control ASAP before you need a hair transplant or just end up joining the “just shave it, bro” club.

    13. But even if we’re talking strictly cosmetic, why waste 3-6 months experimenting on yourself when you can just go straight in with the good shit?

      Because:

      1) I’m busy and that shit takes time to even find out how to get it and where
      2) I picked up the OTC stuff during my regular grocery shopping, since I already have it, might as well spend it.

      Let’s not go overboard (black and white thinking) and say that it’s so useless that I should throw it in the trash and not use anything until I can get the OTC stuff. That’s a bit of black and white thinking, especially since I lookeed into the studies, it’s not that dire, let’s not go overboard here.

      Yes I’m aware of differin. Wasn’t aware when I first picked up the OTC stuff, which happened on my very first day of even learning about retinol (didn’t know about differin etc then).

    14. So I went and looked into Differin (adepolone) when I looked at the name I was like this is familar. I was prescribed to me in my early 20s for Acne. I went and looked up its status in my country, it is prescription only.

      So if I have to go the whole doctor-shopping and prescrptions route, I might as well pick up Tretinoin. The only reason everyone in the USA praises Differin as the best OTC option is because it was recently made OTC to my knowledge. In most countries it is still not OTC.

    15. I think they call it Adapalene in the US and only the 0.1% is OTC. And yes, if that’s the case you may as well get the tretinoin. I’m guessing you’d probably need a prescription written specifically for acne to get insurance to cover it, otherwise some pharmacies charge an arm and a leg for it sometimes. However, there is the grey market option that I myself am fond of and should be an option for Europeans as well.

    16. I would also recommend using ceramide cream like CeraVe. It helps maintain healthy skin barrier and has research backing it up, unlike most other skincare products.
      Most dermatologists recommend using moisturizers but I’ve always found them to be too greasy. However ceramide cream feels very natural, is odourless and I’ve noticed skin improvement very quickly.

    17. @PickerNanny

      So which are you using. Tretinoin or Differing? And how long have you used for now?

    18. In all seriousness, I think that late twenties and thirties are the best time for picking up chicks for certain types of guys (there has been a discussion on fast vs slow lane). It would be a shame to shorten one’s prime due to nonchalance.

    19. It would be a shame to shorten one’s prime due to nonchalance.

      I agree. If you can apply a cream (takes all of 30 seconds 3 times a week) and prolong your streak by 5-6-7 years; I see no reason not to.

    20. Alek, I ordered several tubes of generic tretinoin at varying strengths (0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1%), both gels and creams. The biggest expense was the shipping, which was like $30-35, and the tubes were less than $10 a piece. I’ve been using it for a few months at least. Skin looks better, forehead lines and faint wrinkles around eyes diminished, blackheads in T-zone became almost non-existent. If you can only get the stronger concentrations because of supply issues then you can get away with the smallest amounts possible and EoD use or even just twice a week. Also, if you are acne prone there may be a purging phase.

      Another option is to go to a dermatologist and tell them you’ve been using your sister’s tretinoin and that it has done wonders for your acne. They don’t give a fuck and will prescribe it unless for some reason they are obstinate assholes. It’s not a controlled substance or anything.

      Skeptick, I agree. I haven’t given up completely or anything. I think if you’re not trying to settle down then it’s also less of an issue because the quality of the women’s character isn’t as important.

    21. Dermatologists here are super-expensive. A visit just to ask them a question is like 50 euros. So it’s actually more than the tretinoin 😀

      Anyway, about your result. Did you take before pictures to compare?

      I’ m using two tools to compare. You put in the image, and tell you age of face:
      First one is: https://howolddoyoulook.com/

    22. For a large part of my life,I have always wondered if its too late for me to save my skin,comparing myself now at 251 lbs to back when I was at almost 300lbs,not only is there a giant (pun intended,lol) world of difference in whole body (especially face) composition,but its like I’ve gone through a reverse aging process. at 290lbs+,I don’t look all that indistinguishable from those middle aged obese dudes. At 251lbs with facial hair,I look almost as manly as Ted “don’t fuck with me” Cruz I dare say,haha!

      I’m definitely not finished though. I suspect I’ve got at least 60 more lbs to shed and I’m as good as done. (maybe I’ll milk the diet out towards the end until the weight loss stops entirely. I’m not gonna adjust my diet anymore at that point,but I’ll wait till fat loss stops entirely or becomes too slow before officially ending it.) I essentially had to put my life on pause for quite awhile to accomplish this but I’d say its paying off in dividends already. (Besides the obvious more ease of daily movement in life,for the first time in my life,I have noticed a considerable increase in speed in my MA training! I’ve always wondered how much losing weight can affect your speed in a fight but this has officially answered that question of mine. I can only anticipate just how much faster I’ll be as I cut out even more unnecessary weight,lol.)

      Its probably not just the weight loss though,but the exercise. I don’t think any of you folks here are a stranger to how regular physical activity is a major contributor to health and youthfulness. I was surprised to learn my Boxing/Muay Thai instructor is in his 40’s. He looks as if he’s in his early 30’s or even late 20’s. Also kinda has the energy to match. lol.

      Its not practical for me to think about supplementation right now,but this is all definitely good to know and keep in my backpocket for later use. Maybe I’ll finally start putting on that lotion that my folks keep insisting I start using regularly of which I’ve always been too lazy (largely because I thought it was pointless,till now…) to really bother with.

    23. Alek, I wish I had known about this before so I could have taken more strict measures. I uploaded a series of photos using the second link you provided of myself from different years, as well as friends of mine and also different selfies of chicks I still have. The results are interesting.

      As for myself the software consistently thought I was younger than my chronological age. I noticed that when I was higher BF% it thought I was younger and when I was more lean it guessed more closely to my actual age at the time. My friend who is the same age as me yet smokes and drinks was rated to be in his early 40s. However, chicks in my photo reel wearing heavy makeup were guessed to be in their early 30s. Funny how makeup has the effect of making a woman look older rather than younger.

      The reason I say I wish I knew about this beforehand is because I could have taken pictures in the same lighting etc. and gotten more accurate feedback. I will have to be more conscious of the process to get more accurate results from here on out, yet I believe that hair styling and the amount of fat in your cheeks will have an effect.

    24. When I see a woman who uses heavy makeup, I tend to assume that she has a reason to do so, i.e. hiding her age. Thus, it is not make-up that makes her look older but her likely motivation for wanting to use a lot of makeup.

    25. Aaron, considering many modern women’s lifestyle choices such as tanning addiction, partying/drinking/smoking, eating too much junk food and stressing out about how fucked their lives are, it’s no wonder that they would look several years older than their chronological age. I’d be willing to bet, however, that in at least some cases that women look technically younger without their foundation and eyeliner, and coincidentally less like the madam at a brothel.

    26. @Pickernanny Thank you for persissting

      I went ahead and ran to the pharmacy and did grab myself some Adapalene without a prescription. Unfortunately they only had the cream version, which I think is a bit less suitable for the de-aging thing. It’s more meant to apply to spots, like the exact place where the acne is, rather than the whole face like de-aging retinol. But still. Maybe I’ll manage to get grab some of the gel-version when it’s back in stock.

    27. No doubt. I certainly believe that the Adapalene will hit much harder than your average retinol product. It’s also cheaper and a pea-sized amount will stretch a tube out for quite a while. I’ll be sure to carry out a strict photo experiment between now and the next 6 months or so.

    28. As for myself the software consistently thought I was younger than my chronological age. I noticed that when I was higher BF% it thought I was younger and when I was more lean it guessed more closely to my actual age at the time. My friend who is the same age as me yet smokes and drinks was rated to be in his early 40s.

      I had all of my friends try it. Friends of all ages and bodyfat levels. It gave exact results for all of them. It’s pretty good.

      – The odds are that if using today’s pictures it says you look much younger, than it means the tretinol worked.

      However, 2 caveats (since you didn’t track things from the start.

      1) When I first started tracking it told me I look 5-6 years younger than my chronological age. Found out that fucking Samsung has a de-aging filter built-into their camera app (on some models). And it applies it without even asking. It’s not even in the preferences. I was surprised because all of my friends got the exact result, but I was told I look 5-7 years younger (before retinol).

      –> I switched to another camera app from the app store, and surprise, the app tells me my real age. So make sure you don’t have something similar going on.

      2) There are certain light condition under which a phone camera blurs the skin somewhat. I can’t explain it, but when the sunlight from the window is a certain way it gives a kind of a glow to the photo. On those days the age-detector says I’m 3-4 years young. It’s kind of the same as using a filter in a way. So you need to take photos over several days, using natural light from a window, and find whatever is consistent, that will be your real age.

      However, chicks in my photo reel wearing heavy makeup were guessed to be in their early 30s. Funny how makeup has the effect of making a woman look older rather than younger.

      Funny story, I experienced this first hand, by accident. When I first found out I need to use a moisturizer and SPF along with the retinol I grabbed the first moisturizer off the shelf with an SPF. I DID NOT NOTICE it includes ‘skin tone color’. Basically I think it’s like applying foundation makeup. At least it looks like it.

      When I applied it, I looked in the mirror and went “wow I look younger”. But then took a photo, uploaded it, and the age detector told me I look OLDER. Just like the girls you tested with. It might be something to do with how the algorithm works. I tried it a couple more times, and each time I look in the mirror and look younger, but the age-checking website says “look older”.

    29. It’s also cheaper and a pea-sized amount will stretch a tube out for quite a while.

      I haven’t tried it yet, but I don’t think it’ll end up cheaper. I’ve used this product before and remember it was pretty thick. I don’t think I’ll able to take a little bit and spread it over the entire face. It seems like I’ll get at most like 5-6 uses out of the tube. Though I might be completely wrong, we’ll see when I try it.

      Price-wise, it’s about third the price of the really fancy and luxurious looking OTC retinol I got from L’oreal. Yet, the L’oreal one (from what I’ve used so far) looks like it’ll last months and months and months.

      – Basically the OTC is about triple the price, but looks like it has 10x the applications. So overall, not cheaper. Though I might be completely wrong and it’s not just 5-6 applications. We’ll see.

      [From Previous comment] Also, if you are acne prone there may be a purging phase.

      Funny you mentioned this early. I was going to reply to this right before jumping over to the pharmacy. The reason I know the OTC retinol isn’t crap is precisely because I have acne.

      I actually have acne on my face for the first time in many many years. That’s a sign of the retinol working.

      In this case the side-effect is a good sign it’s not fake/crap retinol. Though it is pretty famous brand, so I doubt they would have used ineffective retinol away. I am not throwing the OTC away just coz I got adapalene, I’ll probably alternate them or something.

    30. believe that hair styling and the amount of fat in your cheeks will have an effect.

      Yes, fat distribution has a lot to do with how old you look. When I went to photoshop and removed all signs of aging from the face, it still refused to budge below 30 years old. And I’m looking at this photo and going “that looks way too smooth for a 30 year old, how can it be 30 years old, how does it know this is not a 20 year old when the skin is literally 100000% smooth”?

      Apparently, with age your face shape changes as well, based on how the fat is stored across the face. I think that’s why people do that filler stuff. It’s to recreate the fat distribution of a younger person.

    31. Just one clarification because some people might misunderstand what I was trying here

      When I went to photoshop and removed all signs of aging from the face, it still refused to budge below 30 years old. And I’m looking at this photo and going “that looks way too smooth for a 30 year old, how can it be 30 years old, how does it know this is not a 20 year old when the skin is literally 100000% smooth”?

      For the record, I’m not trying to look 20 looool. It’s just that I wanted to know what “30% reduction in signs of aging looks like”, and what a “50% reduction looks like etc”.

      – My method is to go to photoshop, create a copy on which I remove all signs of aging
      – Then superimpose that on top of the non-edited photo, and set it to like 30%

      So you get to see what a 30% reduction looks like. But you have to remove everything in the original “reduction” layer.

      My surprise was in looking at this “everything removed” layer. The skin looks like a Baby’s skin. To my eyes it looks like a 20 year old. But if you plug it into the age-detector it says “30-year old”. If I use photos of myself at 20, it says “20 year old dude”, even though I had pretty bad skin back then. So it knows something we don’t. We can look at the skin part, but it looks at other things to determine age (like fat distribution in the face).

    32. Speaking of fat distribution in the face, I just finished watching Conan the Destroyer. Look up some clips with Princess Jehnna (Olivia d’Abo)! This actress was 14 or 15 years old during the filming. Probably none of us gets exposed to a lot of girls shortly after they hit menarche, so it can be a bit of a surprise how much different they can look compared to even 18 or 19 year olds. Of course, I am talking about physical characteristics in a purely clinical way and completely ignore the sexual aspects because everybody knows that women are only fit to reproduce once they hit 30.

    33. “When I first started tracking it told me I look 5-6 years younger than my chronological age. Found out that fucking Samsung has a de-aging filter built-into their camera app (on some models). And it applies it without even asking.”

      Ah, I’m actually using an iphone 6 still, so I don’t think there’s a filter on the camera. However, I did end up taking some pictures in the bathroom to test out the AI and it ended up guessing my exact age, sometimes off by a year younger or a year older. So, I suppose the lighting in there will be a good place to create a consistent environment to test the tretinoin throughout the next 6 months.

      “There are certain light condition under which a phone camera blurs the skin somewhat.”

      Funnily enough I actually fed the AI a picture of a while back when I was sleep deprived, somewhat inadequately nourished and had had a persistent cold for a while. It thought I was 7 years older.

      “I haven’t tried it [Adapalene] yet, but I don’t think it’ll end up cheaper.”

      I actually had this product in mind when I made those remarks about it: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=adapalene&crid=3PDJC3LX8R7Q3&sprefix=adapalen%2Caps%2C170&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

      It’s less than 14 USD for a 30 day supply of gel product. I think it would be possible to spread it out over 1-1.5 months.

      “I am not throwing the OTC away just coz I got adapalene, I’ll probably alternate them or something.”

      Yes, I wasn’t actually implying that you discard your product especially since it turns out to be legit. I’d be surprised if the Adapalene I linked to wasn’t cheaper, though. It wouldn’t make since to trash the stuff you have because you don’t yet have your hands on the tret. Also, consider that if you order the stuff from a foreign country (by using BTC or something) then there will be a 2-4 week shipping period most likely. You’d need something in the meantime.

      “If I use photos of myself at 20, it says “20 year old dude”, even though I had pretty bad skin back then.”

      This is interesting because it cues us into the fact that there is more to “looking younger” than simply clearing up your complexion. I think perhaps the goal should be to look really good for your age by clearing up your complexion, reversing some signs of sun damage and diminishing fine lines. It may be difficult to fool an AI but chicks consistently tell me that I look several years younger than I actually do. This could just be them rationalizing your age as being lower because of some reason other than that they genuinely believe it. I’ve actually found that younger chicks will say I look much younger than actually am while chicks who are around my age or older usually guess pretty accurately.

    34. “Probably none of us gets exposed to a lot of girls shortly after they hit menarche, so it can be a bit of a surprise how much different they can look compared to even 18 or 19 year olds.”

      Dude, this actually just reminded me of a single mother I banged on and off for a few years some time back. She had actually reproduced when she herself was only 13 years old and effectively got shooed out of her Christian academy. This chick was probably the horniest chick I ever fucked in my life, btw, and I ended up suspecting she was a histrionic.

      The thing I was reminded of, however, was that her daughter was 12 when I first started banging her mom (I never met her child at any point) and by the end of our hooking up period she was 15. I remember her showing me pictures of her daughter and her doing activities or whatever and thinking, “I shouldn’t be thinking that this chick is attractive.”

      To be clear, I think it’s perfectly natural to find teenage girls attractive, yet I would never allow myself to be in such a situation. For one, it is extremely illegal in the US, and if it were my own daughter and I found out some grown ass man fucked her then he would pay dearly. I have to wonder how often it does happen where some guy is banging out some burnt out mom and finds his way into her daughters bedroom at some point. It’s certainly a fantasy that guys have as it is a popular genre on the hub.

    35. About adapelene. It’s 5$ a tube here. But basically I was wrong. This tube will last a long while. I took a very tiny amount and it was enough to spread everywhere. So there’s definitely at least 30 applications worth and just 5-6 like I thought.

      About the chicks. I think it’s basically an IOI. Each group is telling you the age they want you to be so they can fuck you comfortably.

    36. “About the chicks. I think it’s basically an IOI. Each group is telling you the age they want you to be so they can fuck you comfortably.”

      Makes perfect sense because I can remember pretty recently a 21 years old guessed that I was 10 years younger than I actually am, and after two more guessing I just told her. She got quiet but then came back with a, “you age well, teehee.” She was really pretty but she turned out to be psychotic. However, she had a pretty high enough IQ to where she would have psychotic episodes and not want to act out knowing that it would lead to undesirable consequences, but instead self-destruct. But anyway, there’s no way that I actually look that young now that I think of it.

    37. @Pickernanny

      Ah, I’m actually using an iphone 6 still, so I don’t think there’s a filter on the camera. However, I did end up taking some pictures in the bathroom to test out the AI and it ended up guessing my exact age, sometimes off by a year younger or a year older. So, I suppose the lighting in there will be a good place to create a consistent environment to test the tretinoin throughout the next 6 months.

      So the tool in the second link says you look your chronological age despite using tretinoin for a couple of months now? Because initially you said it consistently shows you as younger.

  3. I would add one caveat here, the discussion about peaking in your finances at your early 30s. That might be how careers peak, I don’t know, and don’t have friends with careers, they’re all entrepreneurs.

    But it’s the exact opposite in business. Almost nobody gets anywhere near their potential in their 30s as an entrepeneur. Those are rare exceptions. In business people peak in their late 40s or 50s.

    It’s the same with even doctors or laywers (who have a private practice), they make the most in their 40s and 50s.

    1. As far as most jobs go, it rarely takes more than a couple of years to become proficient in something. Although in programming there are so many complex areas you can delve into which makes me surprised that you wouldn’t be able to increase your compensation by acquiring further specializations.

    2. If you want to remain an individual contributor, then there is not that much upside after reaching the senior level. Looking at the career progression of people who went further, it seems that they picked a specialization and stuck with it, which becomes a problem if their market value is tied to a narrow domain or a particular product. I know of cases where people had to take a significant pay cut as they could not find an equivalent position elsewhere. There is also the phenomenon that some people only ended up in a staff or principal role because they joined early. Yet, they may very well be quite overpaid. You can identify those people if you look at their tenure. Sometimes, people do not stay because they love their job but because they cannot find anything else.

    3. Most software products are based on multiple disciplines or fields of research. I assumed that an expert could either pivot to something else and use his previous expertise to gain an advantage through interdisciplinarity, or to pivot to a more in-demand field which shares some of the foundations with his previous line of work.

    4. If you are highly specialized, you can no longer easily pivot. Also, if you want to remain a generalist, you will be more able to move around but you will not be able to compete against a specialist with the same intelligence and work ethic. Companies furthermore tend to not pay for skills they cannot use. There is also a lot of competition in in-demand fields and you are not going to quickly catch up with someone who dedicated his career to it. On that related note, I know of people who thought they could quite a fairly senior job, take half a year off, and quickly find a suitable job again. As it turned out, this is not what happened and some struggled quite a bit to find adequate employment.

    5. Also keep in mind that the pyramid is quite narrow. The progression from entry-level to mid-level to senior engineer is comparatively easy as these make-believe promotions do not require a move up in the hierarchy. Your position in the org chart does no change. In contrast, for staff or principal positions, there needs to be a vacant position. A promotion to senior can, of course, be denied based on budgetary constraints. For a promotion to staff/principal or whatever the next level is called at your company, an existing position needs to be either vacant or the company has to create one.

  4. Wassting my 20s masturbating and playing Diablo II guaranteed one entry level job after another. With no marketable skillset or career, what are my options going forward? MGTOW is only temporary it seems. I cannot turn off the part of my brain that compels me to seek out a mate and procreate. Never have I ever had a girlfriend. Owning a sex doll is not all its cracked up to be. TFM was wrong. I am thinking about joining my local Catholic church with the hope of finding some kind of purpose and maybe a wife.

    1. Can’t you acquire marketable skills at those entry-level positions? If you are in a genuinely dead-end job, you should probably spend some time on training, but if you are in a position where growth is possible, then try to learn as much on the job as you can, and see what will happen. If your current employer does not want to pay you more money once you have proven yourself, some other company might.

  5. I moved from from mid to senior to staff engineer equivalent in 1 year. Of course I’m in a field that had its knowledge base be destroyed by Covid retirements(lubricants)

    1. Just to be clear, my argument is not that it is impossible to advance to levels beyond senior. However, it is simply exponentially more difficult to move from senior to staff than it is to get the fake-promotion from mid to senior. I have seen organizational structures where it is more difficult to get to staff engineer than into a manager position as the one staff engineer position they had in the department was at the same level as all the team lead/managers, and of the latter there were more than one around, and they all reported to the department head.

  6. Of course, the current place I work has had second staff engineer position open for 1.5 years. Only 4 resumes have had any relevant skill sets.

    1. That’s the other issue, i.e. the need to specialize. However, I find that some hiring managers are very shortsighted. They ask the leaver to write down a summary of their skills and experience, and use this as input for the job description, ignoring that this guy likely acquired a large part of it on-the-job. Normally, you are a lot better off hiring a really smart guy who has a good foundation, and who can get up to speed quickly.

    2. Normally, you are a lot better off hiring a really smart guy who has a good foundation, and who can get up to speed quickly.

      That’s what I do in my own business. It’s not programming related, but the concept is universal.

      Its faster and easier to get someone smart and willing to learn, than to wait for a fully-formed product to appear.

      I mean I see those job postings and I wonder how they ever get filled. I’m guessing someone lies their way through the process. Because if they had all those experiences they would own the competitor business, not be applying for jobs.

  7. Does it make any sense to time an off-ramp if you are not going to age like fine wine?

    I mean, let’s suppose my peak age is 35, so I settle down with a 22 years old girl that ticks many of my checkboxes.

    Now, fast forward a few years, my looks start to decay significantly, making her less attracted to me (unless she let go, she is still quite attractive).

    What will prevent her to cheat on me and rip my ass in court? Isn’t it a risk anyway to settle down if you are not going to age well for the following decade?

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