Aaron Clarey's "The Book of Numbers: Maximizing Your Return on Investment in the Pursuit of Women"

MartyMart: We live in unprecedented times.

Men live in a world where they are seen as toxic at worst and distrustful at best; a world where open feral hypergamy is encouraged towards women.
Women are incentivized to break up their family and get cash and prizes in a divorce, all based on the illusion of entitlement.

If you're a young man in the ridiculous dating market, READ THIS before you do anything else.

The pursuit of women in the west is all but a lost cause.

United States on Sep 18, 2023

Honest Reviewer: I have watched Aaron Clarey a couple of times on the Internet, but I admit to finding him very irritating. This book in being intelligently thought out and written has caused me to revise my opinion of him. Being in my sixties, I do not remotely rank among his target audience: men under 35. I read it out of curiosity to see what (actuarial) challenges modern men faced when compared to the men of my era.
There is a lot of data out there on dating and relationships, but it is almost impossible to make sense of it all objectively; nonetheless, I think Arron Clarey has made a good fist of it. The book endorses my view that traditional, marriageable women are becoming scarcer - but also that the quality of men is not what it was. How the author defines the attributes that make a woman marriage material is necessarily arbitrary and open to debate; however, there is no denying that the average 25-year-old Joe upon reading this book will put it down feeling quite despondent.
To me this book raises the question: "Do men and women really need each other in the 21st century?"

United Kingdom on Jul 04, 2023

Anon: Love the humbling stats. Very helpful for knowing what I want in life / a partner and creating a plan to get it. As Aaron points out, the best thing to do is get out there and don't stay in your man hut all week!

United States on Jun 10, 2023

O: I was amazed that a stranger on the other side of the Atlantic had formed the same opinion as myself only he had written an actual book on it.

United Kingdom on Jun 08, 2023

Marcelo Laurentino: 4

Brazil on Jun 02, 2023

learner: Easy to read and understand.

It is a nice complement to other reads like „The rational male“ series.

Recommended to any men.

Germany on Feb 14, 2023

LilyBoss: There is a lot of truth in this book. The numbers do not lie. However, don't despair, there are several solutions to improving your odds of a happy marriage that are not mentioned in this book.
One is only dating devoutly religious women. Specifically, women who are devout members of a religion that puts restrictions on human sexual behavior as well as making honesty a virtue.
Secondly, he eliminates 59.6% of women who are overweight as not being marriage material, which is ridiculous. Being overweight is not that big of a deal: they're called "fixer-uppers". My friend dated a girl who was overweight and got her to lose weight by teaching her proper dietary principles and now she is gorgeous. With the arrival of the carb-addiction model of obesity, the progress of eating-disorder psychology, and the keto and carnivore diets, being overweight is now an easily fixable problem.
Third, he sadly stigmatizes mental illness by eliminating 25% of woman as being unmarriageable ( roughly the percentage of women who take antidepressants) . This is also unnecessary. Women who are depressed or anxious shouldn't be eliminated from consideration, given how messed up the culture we live...

United States on May 20, 2021

Kindle Customer: Overall a great book with a lot of good information. As a single young man myself, I didn't realize (until I read the book) how much I had spent on dating women, and most of that money could have been put into stocks or precious metals and made me wealthier than wasting it on women for "coffee dates" or "wine tasting" not to mention the hours I could have gotten back not wasting it. I agree with the premise that most men are better off doing literally anything else besides putting effort into dating- as Aaron notes, if you do well for yourself women will be attracted to you anyway.
The only reason I don't give this book 5 stars is that I was hoping to see more calculations than just the 'average'. Specifically, I would like to see a 2nd edition at some point in the future (and more sales opportunities for Aaron) that has the actuarial numbers for men at other levels, perhaps organized by a table. What are your chances of success in category x if you are a 7 out of 10? How about a 3 out of 10? The more categories included, the more likely a particular man will identify with the number rather than just using the 'average' man
overall, this is a great book and a must-read for...

United States on Mar 14, 2021

Amazon Customer: A good read with an interesting premise. Some of the assertions in the book are not proven (eg most economic effort and production by men is to have sex and/or reproduce). While I believe some of these assertions, it is important to note that not all of them are proven and it would have been nice to have more evidence of these.

Some examples of the above - there is a section on "Odds of Being Happily Married". The author does not put much effort into defining happiness or what could go into this measure. I'm sure there are studies asking people "Are you married? Are you happy?" and there are psychological "analogues" or indicators of happiness that could have been used, with figures to back that up. There are other examples where more depth could have been had.

Also, this book, while an interesting read, is badly in need of an editor. Many sentences start with conjunctions ("But, this happened.", "Because of this reason.", "And, another event." etc...) and it does take away from the total enjoyment of this essay. The overall flow of the words can use improvement and a once-over before being published would have revealed these flaws and allowed them to be...

Canada on Feb 02, 2021

Amazon Customer: This is a very helpful book by an author who has a strong grasp of both the American dating scene, macroeconomics, and personal finances. He skillfully ties the three together in this essential read for all unmarried men who are still questioning whether they should try harder, stop trying, keep doing what they are doing, or take the leap to marriage.

I would split the big into four main areas, all of which Clarey offers substantive thought:
1. The Numbers
2. The Calculations
3. Historical Context
4. How to Move Forward

1. The numbers are essential and very honest, for Clarey offers disclaimers and states assumptions throughout. He also cites his sources within the actual passages, rather than just at the end.

2. The calculations are the pinnacle to the book, since they are the first attempt to actually quantify this rather abstract albeit essential topic. Dating coaches, psychologists, family members, and religious leaders may offer some wisdom, but all of them do not offer the type of statistical calculations that Clarey offers.

3. Historical context. This is a very important part so that men can realize what the state of the world is....

United States on Dec 14, 2020