"Somewhere in Stanford, California, an undergrad is telling his roommates that he landed a Friday night date because he tried a billionaire's pickup line. A man on the New York subway is yelling out that same line to strangers. A woman is planning to stand in Washington Square Park wearing a cardboard sign bearing the phrase. These are just a few scenes from the weekend frenzy in New York City around Bill Ackman's four-word piece of dating advice: "May I meet you?""
"He posted the line as earnest advice for young men who, in his view, now avoid spontaneous interactions because dating apps dominate their social lives. "Online culture destroyed the ability to meet strangers," he wrote on X, in a post that has now been viewed over 26 million times. Ackman, who runs a hedge-fund and is a prolific poster on X, claimed the line "almost never" triggered rejection when he used it as a young man,"
"Some people called the line "killer" and "alpha," while many others - including Ramp Capital's X account - joked about its formality and parodied it. Some critics argued that Ackman's confidence came from advantages - his wealth and height (6'3) - that don't apply to most young men, while others, like economist Tyler Cowen, behind the influential blog Marginal Revolution, agreed with Ackman that even if the line falls flat, it helps get Gen Z men "thinking about meeting women at all.""
Bill Ackman offered four-word dating advice: "May I meet you?" He presented the line as a remedy for young men who now avoid spontaneous interactions because dating apps dominate social life. The line spread widely across cities and platforms, prompting imitation, pranks, and public performances. Reactions ranged from praise for its directness to parody for its formality. Critics argued that Ackman's social and physical advantages, including wealth and height, influence its effectiveness for most young men. The episode highlighted Gen Z's reliance on app-mediated courtship and the reduced practice of initiating conversations with strangers.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]