Recognizing how selfish most people are, I really don't understand why many shy away from sometimes exploiting vulnerabilities in other people to get what you want. Everyone does it all the time, because we all recognize that people are tools. Use them to your advantage, or they'll use you. This is especially useful when it comes to dating.

As a student, you don't have a whole lot of money but much desire for love, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone. A recent example I highly recommend: almost all students buy very expensive literature, but at many courses, especially at the humanities, only a fraction of those books are really needed to pass the course. Since you might want to save money for more important things like food and beer, I've lately simply stopped buying books altogether.

The ones I really need, I borrow from a library or a friend. The ones I desperately need but cannot buy for some reason, I get from shy girls. Recently I needed four pages from a book I'd never imagine myself buying. So I talked about an assignment with my group, after which one cute girl explained she did have the book. Awesome, I said, why don't we go and make a few copies for everyone? She agreed, being kind but shy, and we all took a freeride, not only on her book, but also on her copy card (at universities, few things come for free). I even let her do the copying--she insisted.

How could I ever thank her? Not by giving her ten Swedish crowns like one other guy did, or buy her cheap coffee. I simply asked her out on a beer. If she'd said no, I wouldn't care--I just got several pages put in my hand for free. Since she kind of said yes but maybe, I can expect to meet her again in a more private environment, which may not be a date, but a possible introduction to some kind of friendly relation. Whatever happens, I cannot lose. I've gained a friend and a handful of expensive academic papers. Life is good when you know how to play it.