An Atlantic article, “Games Boys Play,” describes how men include a third object in their friendships to avoid the vulnerability that might otherwise bob up among idle friends: “When you’re hunting, or working on a car, or shooting free throws, you can look together at the deer, or the transmission, or the basket, and talk. The common objective gives you something to talk about, and not having to face each other means you don’t have to lay the full weight of your emotions on each other.”
