Your standard and the best you can do

How many times have you heard people say:

• “She’s not up to his standard”
• “She’s the best he can do”

As a guy, your standard determines whether a girl is worth your time and energy to be with, as opposed to being alone. But what determines your standard? Think about it for a moment.

The answer is that you subconsciously picture the best you can do, i.e. the highest-value girl you could ever hope to get. Then you adjust that bar down to a slightly lower-value girl that you could realistically get, and that’s your standard.

Notice how the graphs visualize this well-known truth about the dating market:

1. High-value girls are less attainable,
2. but every girl is more attainable to a high-value guy,
3. so high-value guys have high standards.