As a comp sci master student who also go out on weekends sometime to clubs, I have to say that women are not turned on by the occupation of a programmer.
This could be related to the problems very intelligent people have getting laid. Their interests are less accessible and more focused, and so their conversations are more boring to people who don't share those interests. Whereas everybody but the stupidest people can easily follow along in a reality TV discussion.
You can just as easily come up with fun stories, things you've done, etc. as a programmer as a doctor.
- Next time you're on facebook try pressing up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter and see what happens. No I won't tell you but it's fun. If you can't remember it here's my number so you can text me and ask
- Yeah today I've had more than half a million people come through computers I run. Without me they would be in serious trouble. Pretty wild huh?
- I've helped so many kids with computers you wouldn't believe it.
A little thick maybe, but you get the point :-)
For example:
Her: "What do you do for a living?"
You: "I write software that thousands of people use every day to get their own jobs done. And my real passion is cooking. I love French cooking from scratch.(pause)What do you enjoy doing?"
OR
Her: "What do you do for a living?"
You: "I write software. Office politics aside, I like the creative aspect of building something up, from a blank screen in my editor to something that people actually use on the Internet.(pause). What do you do to exercise your creativity?"
"So tell me about yourself"
As Jerry Seinfeld says, a date is a job interview.
Just treat dating as anything else you'd like to improve upon. Do your research, understand the end goal, and follow people who are better than you.
When she asks what you do for a living you can respond:
"I'm actually a porn star stunt double, but on the weekends I'll do a little programming here and there"
And then smile. It's all in the delivery, Cocky and funny gets the job done.
However, both men and women tend to be more androgynous as intelligence increases, which is a problem for both genders, but especially for men, when it comes to attracting mates.
Hm, didn't want to derail this into being really focused on construction workers. Replace that in the previous paragraph with any non-intellectually focused occupation.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=marissa%20mayer&...
:-)
An androgynous person is one who has a mixture of masculine and feminine traits, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I'd generally argue that it's a good thing, because gender roles/stereotypes are limiting and generally bogus. Most people who are worth a damn are fairly androgynous, because there are plenty of worthwhile traits on both sides of the stereotypical gender divide.
Do they? I can't say I've ever noticed.
Also, it seems that intelligent people place quite a high value on, well, intelligence. I doubt most people working on startups, research, ground-breaking products, etc want a mate who doesn't understand or care for any of it.
You could possibly explain this in the article then with the idea that intelligent people are more likely to be either really introverted or extroverted and that the introverted ones tend not to do this sort of thing, leaving just the extroverted of the smart people to get laid?
Sort of similar to the risk-aversion idea here, except with introversion. I do have smart friends who do this, they just happen to also be reasonably extroverted
If you want a girl like you; make her smile.
Yes, and if you want to win a race, simply go faster.
If you want to get a home run, simply hit the ball harder.
If you want to be a better programmer, just write better code.
If you want to make your startup succeed, just get more users.
If you want to make your dog start behaving, just train it.
and on and on and on.
For example, if you want to go faster you should probably run more.
I suggest the same approach to 'making her smile'. Go talk to girls until you find one that is fun to talk to.
It is important to remember that the girl you WANT to like you probably won't like you back. Get over it; don't waste your time on someone that doesn't even like you. If she doesn't like that you are a programmer, find someone who does. Rejection is part of. Get rejected today! It means you are trying....
The parent was more even handed when they mentioned confidence and social status. Yes, some girls maybe care about confidence a bit too much, but just the same, guys like myself can often do a poor job of acting confident (sometimes due to lack of effort conforming to norms).
There are two sides to the story.