Chapter One: How to fish:

A young man was out in the wilderness, and starving. As he stumbled along he came upon an old man sitting by the lake, chewing on a leathery piece of jerky. The young man was famished, and asked the old man, “Are there fish in the lake?”

“Oh yes, lots of them.”
“Well, do you not know how to fish?”
“Oh yes, I certainly do!”
“ Well are we lacking a hook?”
“Oh no, I have bait and tackle, and all you could want over there in my cabin.”
“So why are you chewing on that leathery piece of jerky, when you could be feasting on fresh fish?” asked the young man.

“Well,” replied the old man, “There is a reason, if you really want to know.”
The young man assured him he was dying for some fish, and really wanted to know. “When I was a young man, I came upon a parchment, telling you how to fish. It specified exactly the hook to use, exactly the bait to use, exactly how heavy a line, and what color. Not only this, but it explained the best weather, the ideal time of day, and just where in the lake to put down a line. It told where the best logs were that the fish use for cover, and the best backwaters. It showed how to fillet the fish, and what kind of fire to cook it over. So I took the advice, and began to fish.”

“Well, did you catch anything?” came the query.
“Not only did I catch fish, I caught them all over the place. I caught 5 and 6 an hour. I had so many fish I didn’t know what to do with them all.”
“So you’re trying to tell me you’re sick of fish, is that it?”
“On the contrary, I love a good Striper, but with this parchment, all I ever caught were carp”

Moral:

If we don’t like the fish we are catching, should we
A: Learn to like the kind of fish we have been catching?
B: Learn to fish differently?

We want to understand that in the analysis, the opposite sex is the fish, and each of us as an individual is fishing for a lasting relationship.

Leaving aside that a really hungry person will simply get a net (and ladies, fishnet's WILL do it for a one night stand,) most of us are willing to play a numbers game to a degree, with the incentive of stability and happiness as our final destination.