Many words have been written about the male loneliness epidemic, as well as the rise of the manosphere with its myriad toxic personalities who pedal fixes for the lack of manly men, which often involves putting down women and lean into misogyny if they don’t outright support misogyny.

Into this world Scott Galloway steps with a solution to what men lack. He sees 4 key areas that men are struggling¹.

First, they are lonely. They have few friends, and no meaningful relationships unless they happen to be married. Then their partner bears the brunt of their emotions.

Second, many men are not economically viable. They aren’t earning enough to appeal as a mate to women².

Third, men are not emotionally viable. They don’t have the emotional maturity to keep going in the face of adversity that other generations of men have had.

Finally, men are adrift. Where they used to take their cues for manhood from church or some other civic group, now they have no place to belong and then get sucked up into the manosphere.

He feels that men are not performing their three primary functions in life, which is resulting in the four issues above. First, men are not sacrificing for something bigger than themselves. Second, should be providing not just economically (which they’re not able to do easily given the economy) but they’re supposed to provide a calm breakwater for the drama the world brings, letting it wash over them without moving. Finally, men are here to procreate and then invest in the kids well-being so that kids can go on to be more than the parents that raised them.

In theory the rest of the book answers these questions, but in practice I’m not sure Galloway does a great job answering any of them in his meandering book. He does spend a bunch of time talking about his childhood, and his kids, which he tries to weave into a the book as a way to touch base with readers to show them how to be men.

By the end of the book Galloway has given us advice on work³, health, friendship, and has talked lots about how much sex young men should be having⁴. I found that he came off as a slightly softer version of the alpha male trope, particularly when he says that a man should be in good enough shape to “know he can handle himself if shit got real” when he walks into a room⁵.

Despite his glimmers of being an enlightened man⁶, much of what Galloway says is in the same vein as any man giving advice for the other men that want to be Alpha males. Get in good shape, work hard, pick up hot women when your young and fuck them, then later find a hot woman to fuck and have some kids and then support them.

I found some of his advice good, but some of it was Silicon Valley bro advice tinged with a bit of a softening. It’s better than Jordan Peterson or Andrew Tate, but I’m not convinced he’s the person men should be turning to for advice on how to be a man today.

Should You Read Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway

Eh, maybe. It’s not a terrible book, and I don’t have a recommendation for a male role model to suggest that counteracts the advice given in the manosphere. If you asked me to pick between Peterson and Galloway, it’s Galloway without a doubt. I’m just not sure I can stand behind everything he’s written in his meandering book. But it’s an easy read so it won’t take that long.

• Purchase Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway

1. Notes on Being a Man Pg 6 ↩︎
2. No Galloway doesn’t touch the LGBTQ community. He assumes a straight male is who needs the help ↩︎
3. Work menial jobs where you get treated like crap so you don’t become someone that treats people like crap. Pg 79 ↩︎
4. They should be having lots of sex. Heck yoga is cool because the girls are hot and you can meet them to have sex with them. Pg 123 ↩︎
5. Notes on Being a Man Pg 118 ↩︎
6. He does acknowledge that men should be vulnerable emotionally. Pg 151 ↩︎