Feeding women validation without them ever getting full.
Upon further reflection. I think this is it. This is what I was looking for from this thread and is potentially the missing piece of my puzzle in terms of my personal relations to women.
I often go to parties/meetups and I already have the looks, dress sense, charm, awareness to leave the party with the hottest girl in the room. I've done this many times. Whilst, a lot of other guys at parties are full "charisma mode" and high tension and they are "high fiving" girls like f**king goofballs ... whereas my style is more subdued, charming and introverted. Coupled with my looks, huntershaped-eyes, cool, calm and collected way ... women are attracted to that underlying sexiness that I naturally bring.
Soon after meeting, they would message me, telling me they are looking forward to meeting again, but I would always ruin the attraction by being too open and honest and talking about 2nd and 3rd dates, my future intentions etc. And I would NEVER hear from these women ever again. They would be so turned off, the attraction would be dead ... and I could never quite understand it. It baffled me.
It seems so counter-intuitive ... because as a man, if I find a girl attractive and she tells me that she's into me, I'm like "Cool, Thats great!! Let's let the barriers down and let the good times roll"
But, this doesn't work with women, as soon as you over-validate them by telling them you are interested in them too soon, they are done with you ... and at that point, the homeless guy on the street has a better chance of hooking up with her than you.
I guess when I was younger, I was largely able to get away with being direct with them and most of the time, they would just be f**king down ... this led to me developing bad habits when dating women and all kinds of pain and suffering for everyone involved.
I feel like I am learning this late in life, I have read a lot of red-pill books that have talked about the need to be "mysterious" with women, but you have worded it in a way that makes the most sense to me ... just don't over-validate them and just gently move the interaction in the right direction.
Thank you for your input and to others that have contributed to this thread and breaking down what "game" is to it's fundamental core. I am sure that there is more to "fundamental game" than just this, but this is an important part of it.