3) Compliment her.

One of the oldest lines in the book is to tell a girl she’s pretty. It works, because every woman likes to feel good about herself, but it’s also older than your grandma and chances are any girl you use it on is going to brush it aside like the 1000 other guys who told her the same thing last week. It’s sweet, but boring and unoriginal. If you really want to brighten her day, you need to break out a nontraditional compliment that she won’t be expecting. Tell her that she has a beautiful smile, that she looks incredible in floral print. Tell her that her glasses frame her face beautifully. Say you love the drawing on the back of her notebook and you think she’s a talented artist. When women interact with most men, they do it on autopilot. It takes something special to break a girl out of autopilot, so complimenting her in a way she’s not used to hearing allows you to both gain brownie points through making her feel good, and also for your originality.

Although autopilot can be pretty funny sometimes…

4) Ask for her opinion.

Practice in baby steps by asking the girl behind you at Starbucks what she thinks of the leprechaun frappuccino. It’s awkward at first to start conversations in third gear like this, but as you grow accustomed to cold-starting conversations in this way, you can graduate to more intense topics that will generate more passion in a girl and gain you more conversational time. The bigger the opinion, the longer the conversation, and the longer the conversation, the better your chances are of getting her number. Simply saying hello puts the ball in her court, but asking her for her opinion keeps it in yours by drawing her in. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. And women LOVE to share their opinions. So give a girl that outlet by actively asking for her opinion. Whatever it is, I can guarantee you that she will have something to say.

“Excuse me miss…what are your thoughts on this?”