This might sound odd, but try reading The Game by Neil Strauss: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Penetrating-Secret-Society-Artist... . It's superficially about how to pick up women, but a lot of it is actually about how to understand social life, what incentives operate on people, and what kinds of things most "normal" (for lack of a better word) people like. Don't use "negs," don't get too wrapped up in his questionable tales of sexual bravado, but do consider what he writes about how to understand the world.