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Notes -
The formulation in my head was more like "if you think you need to be in the top ten percent of men, go somewhere where you are that".
Meanwhile I'm struggling to come up with healthy married couples I know that met through some variation of that advice.
Far more common are what I'd consider the meeting of averages. An average man in the group matched with an average woman in the group. The top men and women have their pick of all the people and thus don't want to settle or they get caught up in infidelity because of all the choices they have. The bottom people don't date.
One of the best couple producing activities I know of is recreational kick ball leagues. Everyone is usually drinking afterwards. No one is amazing at kickball, and mostly no one sucks either. Everyone is really average. The perfect set of circumstances for tossing status games out the window.
I don’t think most people follow that advice explicitly. More often than not it runs: Good at X -> Like to do X, Does X in presence of opposite sex -> is seen as good at something, woman desires men of high skill -> dating and marriage lead to kids.
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This works remarkably well. I do a lot of theater, and being a straight guy immediately puts me in the top 20% simply by virtue of availability. That last 10% got me my partner of 13 years.
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