The Diminishing Returns Curve of Looksmaxxing (and Why Most of Us Plateau Early)

[kdev]

Everyone on here obsesses over “maxing out” their looks like it’s some linear grind where effort = results. It’s not. It’s a curve, and most of you hit the plateau way sooner than you think.

Early gains are obvious:

• Fix acne
• Lose excess fat
• Basic grooming
• Decent haircut

These give massive returns because you’re removing negative signals. You’re not becoming attractive yet, you’re just stopping yourself from being unattractive.

Then comes the illusion phase. This is where people start chasing marginal gains thinking they’re still in the high-return zone:

• Hyper-fixating on canthal tilt
• Obsessing over millimeters of jaw width
• Overanalyzing gonial angles like it’s a physics problem

Reality check: once you’ve handled the big fundamentals, improvements become exponentially harder and less noticeable. You’re putting in 10x the effort for changes only you and three other terminally online guys will notice.

The real limiter isn’t effort at that point. It’s genetic ceiling + structural constraints.

Bone structure, orbital shape, soft tissue distribution… these aren’t things you “optimize” with skincare and mewing. At best, you can create the illusion of improvement through:

• Lighting
• Angles
• Body composition
• Styling coherence

Notice how none of those actually change your underlying structure.

What separates high-tier individuals isn’t that they discovered some secret routine. It’s that their baseline structure allows every small improvement to compound visually. Same effort, wildly different outcomes.

So the actual “high IQ” approach isn’t endless micro-optimization. It’s:

1. Max out high-return fundamentals
2. Identify your structural limits honestly
3. Shift focus to presentation, status, and environment

Because at a certain point, your haircut isn’t the bottleneck. Your life context is.

Most people here aren’t stuck because they’re missing some hidden technique. They’re stuck because they refuse to accept where the curve flattens.

 

[mopheadcody]

thats kinda what most people figure out eventually cuz your progress will just fizzle out once u reach a certain level of attractiveness. optimising that little amount of attractiveness is too much effort especially since girls won't even really notice the fine adjustments

 

[kdev]

thats kinda what most people figure out eventually cuz your progress will just fizzle out once u reach a certain level of attractiveness. optimising that little amount of attractiveness is too much effort especially since girls won't even really notice the fine adjustments

You’re half right, but you’re also missing why some guys still pull ahead after that “plateau. Yes, the raw looks curve flattens. No argument there. Once you’ve cleared obvious negatives, further gains are marginal and most people won’t consciously notice things like slight orbital changes or 2–3 mm differences in jaw width. At higher levels, attraction stops being about detectable changes and starts being about perceptual coherence. Girls won’t say “his zygos are 3% better.” or bs like that lol what they will pick up is subconscious processing, not feature-by-feature analysis. ill give you an example lets say a guy is Chadlite pushing for microscopic facial gains might get +0.2 at best but if he focuses more on physique, dressing style, body language etc can jump far more in percieved attractiveness, even if his face barely changes. The plateau isn’t the end of progress. It’s the point where facial optimization stops carrying and everything else starts mattering more. Most people don’t plateau because the game is over. They plateau because they refuse to switch strategies.

 

[Sub->CL]

You’re half right, but you’re also missing why some guys still pull ahead after that “plateau. Yes, the raw looks curve flattens. No argument there. Once you’ve cleared obvious negatives, further gains are marginal and most people won’t consciously notice things like slight orbital changes or 2–3 mm differences in jaw width. At higher levels, attraction stops being about detectable changes and starts being about perceptual coherence. Girls won’t say “his zygos are 3% better.” or bs like that lol what they will pick up is subconscious processing, not feature-by-feature analysis. ill give you an example lets say a guy is Chadlite pushing for microscopic facial gains might get +0.2 at best but if he focuses more on physique, dressing style, body language etc can jump far more in percieved attractiveness, even if his face barely changes. The plateau isn’t the end of progress. It’s the point where facial optimization stops carrying and everything else starts mattering more. Most people don’t plateau because the game is over. They plateau because they refuse to switch strategies.

Bro even used AI for the reply

 

[kdev]

Bro even used AI for the reply

english isnt my first language i use ai to get my points across and highlight what i want to say.

 

[Sub->CL]

english isnt my first language i use ai to get my points across and highlight what i want to say.

I'd prefer broken English to AI slop, and practice is needed with a language so it would be beneficial to you also

 

[kdev]

I'd prefer broken English to AI slop, and practice is needed with a language so it would be beneficial to you also

i get what you mean but this is a topic that people need to understand so id have preferred if yall understood it properly either way ill take ur advice and make threads without the use of ai from now on thanks bro

 

[stigmaboy]

yo @Sub->CL that's a fair point about ai generated text it can feel really sterile sometimes

but tbh i think the diminishing returns thing is real too like after a certain point you can put in so much effort and the gains are just tiny

for most guys hitting a solid softmax baseline is the move then focusing on other areas of life maybe u just need a slight adjustment not a total overhaul