Ask the Sigma: The Point of SSH
And why SSH is not "astrology for men"
A reader wondered what the point of SSH is, in light of the way in which male behavioral patterns are instinctive, innate, and static.
If your SSH rank never changes, then what is the point of offering advice to men? We will always just revert to our natural state anyways.
The obvious answer is that changing a man’s SSH rank is a very, very small subset of the entire set of advice to men. Indeed, the SSH profile of the man being advised often has a significant influence on the advice being offered; an Omega is very seldom in need of the advice required by an Alpha, and vice-versa.
A number of the readers here responded to the question, and perhaps more directly to the implied question rather than the actual one.
All our scientific achievements are the result of understanding limitations and parameters of nature. Yet there was plenty of leverage achieved anyway.
We can be a less annoying version of our SSH rank. The alcoholic may always have a thirst, but he can master it and not be a deadbeat drunk.
The goal isn't to change your rank, it's to figure out your role and do it the best you can. You can try to move up the ranks, but it's extremely difficult and contrary to one's nature most of the time - it's going to be a lifelong struggle.
1. So that you can know who you are more clearly and stay in your lane with satisfaction rather than trying to be something you're not. 2. Recognizing the ranks and affiliated patterns of behavior in others so that you can navigate social situations more efficiently.
SSH is about recognizing the status of other males for your daily life. Any advice for your own behavior is a sidebar and/or a bonus.
To understand yourself and focus your efforts. There's no point in trying to be someone you are not, but you can be a better version of who you are. Also to model how men act and interact, much like how atomic models help us understand how elements interact. It has both explanatory and predictive properties, the same as any effective model.
The SSH is not for self improvement but about pattern recognition.
All of these are good and relevant answers, and they are encouraging to read, because it indicates that a growing portion of the readership is understanding the point of the SSH and some of the ways it is effective in helping to better understand the human condition as well as anticipate human behavior.
The point of the SSH is to provide an accurate and reliable predictive model of male behavior. The point of giving advice to men is to help them improve the outcomes of their decisions, words, and actions. And most of those improvements will not involve changing their SSH rank, but rather, better understanding the way in which their own patterns of behavior tend to interact with the various different patterns of behavior of other men.
This, you will note, is very different than astrology, which is a wildly inaccurate and unreliable system of categorization by date of birth that neither describes any existing patterns of behavior nor provides a predictive model. There is no SSH-equivalent of a daily horoscope; time and date are totally irrelevant where the SSH is concerned. Moreover, the SSH is not “for men” in the same way that astrology is “for women”; it is certainly “about men” in that it only describes male behavioral patterns and hierarchies, but it is equally useful for men and women alike. The fact that there are many female readers here, some of whom even take part in the daily discourse, is evidence that the SSH is of interest and utility for women.
But most importantly, the SSH is the collection of a set of scientific hypotheses that offers considerable explanatory power as well as observable predictive power. It therefore belongs to an entirely different category than astrology, of which Wikipedia states:
With the onset of the scientific revolution, astrology was called into question; it has been challenged successfully both on theoretical and experimental grounds, and has been shown to have no scientific validity or explanatory power.
It’s true that men almost always revert, sooner or later, to their natural behavioral patterns. While we are conscious, rational beings, our ability to exert our conscious will over our own behavior is limited. As the Apostle Paul lamented in Romans 7:
I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
As men, we sin when we would do right. We behave like Gammas when we would prefer to behave like Deltas. And just as we can conquer temptation at times, we can rise above our instinctive behaviors. But this does not eliminate the temptation, or alter what our instinctive behavioral patterns are.
The chief advantage provided by the SSH with regards to self-improvement is this: the more a man recognizes and understands what his undesirable instincts are, the better that he can discipline himself to not be subject to them.
Admitting that change is necessary is often painful, and contrary to a man’s psyche. The gamma does not believe he needs to change, he believes everyone else needs to change in order to fit his vision of himself.
Change itself is painful, and requires us to become water flowing uphill. By definition a man cannot change without going against his own nature. Unlike brute beasts we are gifted with the ability to do so, but this is neither pleasant nor easy.
As per Romans, Saul of Tarsus did indeed change… but only after direct intervention from Christ , and then having to spend a few years in the desert contemplating some very ugly aspects of his own moral failings.
Change requires going to extremes, including painful extremes, and most people prefer the avoidance of pain over the pursuit of excellence.
Every rank has challenges and negative behaviors to overcome. Knowing the SSH helps with that.
It also helps to avoid envy. For example, once you understand that the life of an alpha is a constant struggle for dominance and against the temptation of hitting on every beautiful woman in the vicinity, being one becomes much less appealing.