If one must be an object, then at least there’s one consolation – to be precious, very precious.
A. Ostrovsky. “The Dowryless Girl”
Our relationships with people boil down to receiving or providing various goods. Whatever we desire represents demand on our part and, accordingly, supply from other members of society. When it comes to demand and supply, we are talking about economics, marketing, and sales. When discussing sales, we should touch on psychology. When it comes to marketing, we delve into human biology. And when we talk about economics, it’s hard to make sense of it without philosophy. If psychology, biology, and philosophy explain the reasons behind the emergence of demand and supply, then mathematics, economics, and marketing provide us with a recipe for how to obtain what we need with minimal effort. Humanity uses mathematics, economics, and marketing to systematize knowledge about how to get what you want in exchange for what you have in abundance.
To start using proven business approaches to achieve personal and societal success, we must first acknowledge that each of us is a product in demand. In exchange for this product, we can receive either nothing, something, or much more than others do. It all depends on how well we can apply logic and reason when making decisions, how well we can control ourselves, and how willing we are to either reject manipulation or, conversely, manipulate the stereotypes and norms accepted in society.
This book is dedicated to the standard, and some consider it the main human problem – sex in its broadest sense. It covers the search for a partner, how people make decisions regarding sexual interactions, successful marriages, children, and a happy family life.
Just as men are concerned with finding the best woman for themselves, women are equally focused on finding the best man for themselves. However, it turns out that this book contains more practical materials useful for women than for men. The fact remains that, despite the apparent variety of choices, there are always far fewer worthy suitors than there are worthy brides. This is why there is an oversupply of women, leading to competition typical of any market system, and a shortage of worthy men, which also results in quite market-driven consequences. While women strive to be attractive, unique, and sexy, men generally do not concern themselves with this. Similarly, there was little attention paid to attractive packaging, quality advertising, and user-friendliness of products sold in the USSR. If anything was available on the shelves, it was already considered a blessing. The most valuable items were distributed through personal connections and favoritism. Thus, in a free market, the need for marketing, advertising, and sales techniques arises among suppliers of goods that are in surplus. In this case, that would be women.
At the same time, this doesn’t mean that the book is useless for men. On the contrary, it is written in a way that most of the ideas and recipes can be applied by both men and women. Both men and women face specific market challenges that arise in the sexual marketplace.
To make it more interesting to read, the material in the book is presented in a random order; the topic of marketing is followed by psychology, philosophy is succeeded by economics, and mathematics is interspersed with biology. Each article includes a brief summary of the ideas that are explored in more detail within it.
This book should be interesting not only to those considering finding a spouse. It offers many practical recommendations on sales and marketing, business organization, and personnel management. It might even be light reading in the realm of business literature, using the example of the sexual market to explore typical challenges faced by any business.
