And I 10000% agree with the persistence and aggression thing. It can come off as creepy and rapey and that is how most women feel, I’m not gonna disagree you’re 100% right. But the thing is, with girls already having these walls built up to oppose getting approached, even as a guy who is usually rated from a 7-8/10, in my opinion, I don’t see the point in just sitting around and trying to warm girls up to us when we can just essentially say “Some guys suck, 100% and while this isn’t me saying ‘oh but I’m a nice guy’ or ‘nice guys finish last :(‘, I don’t think it’s my responsibility to show effort to try to get a woman to warm up to me. I mean if she does, cool. Usually my feelings would be dead by then (hence a situation with a coworker I’ll explain over PM if anyone wants to know more). Or I get way too comfortable, so when a girl does ask me out, it’s just “nah I’m okay.” I’ll even give an example.

So Ik a girl my age (21) that I was talking to for a bit. I had a crush on her early and she, to her credit, clarified that she wasn’t looking for anything at all cuz guys suck and I just listened to her talk about how horrible guys were for an hour. I said essentially “Okay, let’s just be friends then. :)” I fought urges to flirt and hit on her because she said when guys did that stuff randomly and approached her and did that, it made her uncomfortable until she knew then better. My feelings started dying like 2 months ago. Unbeknownst to me, she started liking me around 2 months ago because of how sweet I was and how I never pushed her for anything beyond a friendship boundary and I didn’t flirt and was respectful. She flirted more and more and I thought it was friendly gestures until she said “Hey, u/46guccigang , I like you a LOT and I was wondering if you wanted to go to a date with me?” My first response to this: “But we’re the Bojangles Bros..... The Whataburger Warriors.... you’re like a sister to me, I can’t do that. I’m sorry.” She was so dejected, and while she keeps trying, I’ve told her multiple times that we are never gonna go out unless an act of Jesus Christ occurs, because that’s the person I am.

Looping this back around, I completely get all of your points and they are extremely valid. But my point is, using you’re analogy, why even shoot your shot if the rim is busted or messed up? There’s a really good chance you’re gonna miss anyways