useful advices from the master of swag:
>Too many hackers seem to feel they're doomed from the opening
>scene of the mating game. Fortunately, picking up potential
>partners is a learnable skill. Even if you find that sexual
>tension reduces you to a tongue-tied clod or a babbling twit,
>there are steps you can take to get better at it.
>The first, most important thing for you to know is this; women
>can smell fear -- and they run away from it. When you're
>trying to pick up a girl, whether it's for a one-night stand
>or because you think she might be the love of your life, the
>most powerful thing you can do is to be unafraid of either
>failure or success.
>The flip side of this is that self-confidence is your best
>friend. As we discussed in How To Be Sexy, women can smell
>self-confidence too -- and they go for it like cats for
>catnip. It doesn't much matter exactly why you're
>self-confident; it could be because you're an alpha male in
>some hierarchy, or it could be because you've encountered the
>woman in a setting where you are functioning at your best and
>you know it, or it could even be because you just took the
>right recreational drugs.
>"But Eric," I hear you ask, "I'm a beta male, and I'm standing
>around at some stupid party, and I am neither tipsy nor
>stoned. How do I become self-confident enough not to smell of
>fear?" I can answer in two words: fake it.
this is a must read for the seasoned /prog/rider:
http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/sextips/pickup.html