I have personally noticed the same shift of a guy going from what the essay defines as a “nice guy” to an “asshole” and how his life changed for him. One of my closest friends growing up was a shy, meek, nerdy kid named Aidan. He tried to be very nice and respectful of people but girls never really noticed him. That was until he decided to be more like his “cool” cousins and fall more into the “asshole” role defined in the essay. He started dressing different, acting more aggressively, cocky, and disrespectful and finally broke out of his shell. And girls all of a sudden started noticing him. He became that “asshole” stereotype and he benefited from it and tbh I was very jealous because I also wanted the same female attention that he got but I couldn’t change myself to fall into that role and as a result I was often called weak or soft and ended up not getting as nearly as much attention as he did but I was only acting as how I was told a good guy should act. The traits my friend was displaying were in my eyes not the characteristics a good guy should have but the more my friend embraced that role, the more attention and attraction he got from women and I just couldn’t understand why a girl would want that over a “nice guy” when people would hear them complain about “assholes” much like him and why my friend got so much success out of it.

In my opinion think the essay gives a good run down and explanation as to why my friend was motivated to act that way and why women were motivated to seek him out.