Are We Optimizing the Right Things?

If you’ve never heard the term looksmaxxing, congratulations! Perhaps you inhabit one of the less crazy corners of the Internet, or simply do not spend as much time online as I do. According to Google AI: “Looksmaxxing is an internet subculture focused on extreme physical self-improvement to maximize one’s attractiveness. It is categorized into ‘softmaxxing’ (grooming, diet, fashion) and ‘hardmaxxing’ (steroids, surgery), but mental health experts heavily warn that the trend can fuel eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and dangerous DIY practices.”

Probably the most famous figure in this “movement” is known as Clavicular, a twenty-year-old influencer who admits to using methamphetamines to get the hollow cheekbone look, and advocates”bone smashing”— intentionally hitting the bones in your face with a blunt object (like a hammer) to cause them to regrow sharper and more “chiseled” (NOTE: this does NOT actually work). It would be easy to dismiss Clavicular and others like him as nut-jobs, except that he has nearly a million followers on TikTok alone and makes upwards of $100,000 a month for sharing his advice and opinions.

Leaving aside its more controversial recommendations, there is a core premise in this movement that deserves attention. Looksmaxxers contend that by any measure, attractive people do better in society. Teachers favor attractive students. Attractive people have an edge in getting hired, and make more money than their less attractive counterparts. They have their pick of romantic partners, and overall benefit from the “halo effect” — an unconscious bias that leads people to assume that physically attractive people possess other desirable traits such as intelligence, kindness, and competency.

If all this is true, then it makes sense to strive to be as attractive as possible — within reason. And there’s the rub! While I think you should strive to stay fit, look after your personal grooming, and dress well, making optimization of your physical appearance the core of your personality is a huge mistake.

First off, being more attractive isn’t an unmitigated advantage. Attractive people may get their pick of other attractive people, but research shows they tend to have less successful relationships. What’s more, no matter how much meth or steroids you consume, or how many plastic surgery procedures you have, nobody stays beautiful forever. While centering your life around your appearance might gain you some advantages in your 20s and 30s, it is a pretty fragile base on which to build your self-worth.

Although there doesn’t seem to be any online movement towards it, I think a much healthier strategy for a successful and happy life might be termed character-maxing. It might be true that most of us respond more positively to attractive people, but I think it is also true that we react more positively to good people. We gravitate to those who are morally and emotionally strong, honest, have integrity — and are benevolent. These are traits that one can cultivate over a lifetime. There is no steady diminishment as there is likely to be with your physical attractiveness.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that often values style over substance. And if you are lucky enough to be attractive, I can see how it might be tempting to lean into it. But I think it’s a trap. If you watch Clavicular or other Looksmaxxers for any period of time, you can’t help but conclude that they seem profoundly unhappy. Their romantic relationships (if they can even be called that) sound shallow and transactional. Unlike incels (who inhabit another dark corner of the internet), Looksmaxxers seem to have figured out how to get laid. Despite this, they come across as just as lonely and unhappy as their incel brethren. Not surprisingly, finding someone willing to sleep with you is not the same thing as forming meaningful, intimate, fulfilling relationships. That is something that Clavicular and his ilk seem incapable of understanding.

If you correctly define success in life as achieving happiness, then any marginal gains in wealth and status gained by focusing on your appearance pale next to the incredible advantage of becoming a person of good character. Ayn Rand called man “a being of self-made soul.” She was not talking about carving out cheekbones or sculpting your abs. There is nothing wrong with working on those things, but only as part of the bigger and far more important project of building a soul you can be proud of.