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The Ladder Theory

Foundations of Ladder Theory

Before we get to the core of the ladder theory let’s introduce a few lemmas.

Lemma 1: Every time you meet someone you give them a quick mental rating. Just how this is done is based on your sex, like so:

Two pie charts comparing the Woman's Rating System (heavily weighted toward Money/Power and Attraction) and the Man's Rating System (dominated by Looks)

It should be noted that this is not an entirely conscious process. To make it clear here’s an illustrative example of what really happens:

  • Bob Meets Jane
  • Then Bob Meets Connie

Now the ladder theory description goes like this:

  1. Bob Meets Jane
  2. Bob sizes her up based on the above criterion
  3. Bob puts her on the ladder
  4. Bob meets Connie
  5. Bob sizes her up based on the above criterion
  6. Bob puts her on the ladder above Jane

You can recognize this has gone on because Bob says “I’d like to fuck Jane, but not as much as I want to fuck Connie”

I think that everyone has heard this or something like it enough times for us to accept it as axiomatic and move on. You might be thinking, “Well what about Jane and Connie?” We’ll get to them next.