The Rule of One

I've been applying an idea one of my friends acquired from one of his sources of wisdom. The idea is that a man should keep one relatively close female friend. Not more than one because that would be a drain on a man's time and ability to pursue women romantically/physically. But having the one that you keep for genuinely platonic reasons is good for maintaining a man's grip on reality. She functions as a control group against the experimental group, the women we actively pursue. I've played with it multiple ways, in one case still using game while keeping the relationship platonic and in another case not actively applying directed game (it should be noted that I am a novice in the art of game and have limited knowledge in the science of it). The earlier case proved too unstable to develop a proper friendship but was very useful for my mental well being. The latter case is far more stable, it doesn't have the same impact on my mental well being but it provides a good way to ground myself. I am very amused at the stabilizing effects of keeping a platonic female friend has on my perception of women. On the one hand it establishes a woman I don't see as a sex object but on the other hand no one objectifies women quite like another woman. Although that could just be a side effect of how I tend to keep strange company.