Answers to Questions I

Addressing the questions, stupid and not-so-stupid alike

What would be a reasonable way to classify apparent subtypes of SSH?

High, medium, and low. But there is no real need to do so, because the point of the SSH is not classification, or taxonomy for taxonomy’s sake, but correct anticipation of behavior. Unless there is a material difference in predictable behavior, there is no need for any such classifications.

Could you roughly delineate what % of people fall into each of the SSH categories?

• 5 percent Alpha

• 13 percent Bravo

• 45 percent Delta

• 27 percent Gamma

• 10 percent Omega

Sigma is a rounding error. I have personally known a grand total of two other definite Sigmas.

If people are tractable enough to adopt different roles in different contexts (i.e. the “situational alpha”) then what is the defining context that tells you their true position?

Their observable behavior at home with their wives, friends, and families. Do they lead, do they follow, or do they play the victim? Do they quietly embrace responsibility? Is their wife the most attractive woman in the neighborhood? It’s really not that difficult.

Do you have any real world example of an Omega ending up in a situational Alpha position?

No. But it’s entirely possible in this corrupt and nepotistic world.

Is there such a thing as a long term single or celibate Alpha like how rare celibate Sigmas exist?

Certainly. But it’s rare due to the opportunity and temptation factor. Most men who are celibate are a) involuntarily celibate and b) deluding themselves about their past opportunities.

I have been seeing more stories about young men 18-35 leaving the job force or not working. In your estimation, is this a true emerging trend? And what advice would you give to young men who seem to be increasingly disheartened or apathetic?

Yes. As for advice: go ahead and give up if you are content being an irrelevant nobody. No one ever promised that life would be easy or fair. All the greatest men of history became great due to how they handled adversity, often adversity that was much greater than anything faced by young men today. But history is silent on all the men who gave up because they were disheartened or apathetic, because no one cares about all the failures.

Did you find anything interesting in the recent book survey you conducted?

Not really. Which is fine, not every idea leads to anything useful.

About how confident are you in the idea brought up recently that the first and second major growth period of a boy’s life correspond each to Social and Sexual, and thus can ‘train’ Gamma out of the boy before they hit puberty?

I’m reasonably confident about the former. I don’t believe in the latter at all, and it certainly can’t be trained out of a Gamma before puberty because it is the way puberty plays out that determines a young man’s sexual attractiveness and success.

Are alphas or sigmas more aggressive? To what would a sigma respond violently?

Alphas. A physical attack on his person. Sigmas are much less likely to respond in a physical manner to verbal attacks or insults than Alphas. One hallmark of a Sigma is regularly failing to respond in situations where everyone expects a response. But indifference is not cowardice.

Is female SSH articulation possible or worthwhile?

It may be possible. It is not worthwhile. Female hierarchies don’t accomplish anything and they don’t mean anything to men, so who cares how they sort themselves out? As Martin van Creveld pointed out, the more influence women have, the more men opt out.

Is Walter White from Breaking Bad a gamma?

No idea. Never seen it. But remember, fiction is a very unreliable source of SSH models. The characters are not real and their behavior is imaginary.

Are the Bravo/Sigma relationship more inclined to be natural enemies?

No, Bravos mostly find Sigmas to be puzzling and Sigmas don’t find Bravos to be irritating. Sigmas don’t challenge the hierarchy itself, so Bravos don’t see them as the potential threat that Alphas often do.

How does a sigma manage to stay in place and be content enough to not give into the undying urge to take off?

He makes commitment the mission. The urge will still hit from time to time, but it’s manageable.

Is it appropriate to point out the hypocrisy of one’s superiors in an organisation? If so, is there a way to do so that doesn’t come off as very low status?

No. And no. There are no Hypocrisy Police. People are hypocritical, irrational, and unfair. Pointing it out isn’t going to change it.

How do you reconcile (a) declaring that a Sigma shouldn’t [or wouldn’t] ever assert oneself to be a Sigma with (b) the frequency with which you publicly identify yourself as a Sigma?

I am the original example. The whole concept is derived from my personal experiences and perspective, and distinguishing that pattern of behavior from the Alpha pattern that everyone else believed it to be. It wasn’t possible to use anyone else as an example because I am the only reason the concept exists in the first place. All of the various examples that people point to now, correctly or incorrectly, only serve as examples because they happen to be similar in some way to my personal pattern.

I am much more like the fictional Alpha Tommy Shelby than the fictional Gamma Patrick Bateman. And yet, for all their omnipresence in the memes, neither of them actually serve as a good representation of the Sigma male. Clint Eastwood, in some of his classic drifter roles, is a much better one.

The reason “Sigma” is seen as desirable is because, for whatever reason, many people found the description and the idea of my personal behavioral pattern to be a desirable one. But being a modestly public figure, I cannot convincingly present my behavioral pattern as being any different than it is without being called out and exposed as a fraud. The same is not true for everyone else who just wants to declare “hey, I am just like you” for one reason or another.

Which, by the way, is exactly what some people told me in both private emails and public comments even before I articulated the Sigma male concept. It is very seldom true.

I’ll answer more of the questions this weekend.