<P> Barney Stinson is one of five main characters on How I Met Your Mother . He is a manipulative, oversexed businessman in his thirties who always wears a suit, likes women with "daddy issues" and is frequently willing to offer his (sometimes hypocritical) opinion . Throughout the earlier seasons, Barney is a huge womanizer, and has been described as a "high - functioning sociopath" by his best friend, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). Barney has a plethora of strategies and rules designed to meet women, sleep with them, and discard them . Through several seasons of the show, four (4) of the main characters are couples, as Ted began dating Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and Ted's roommate Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) becomes engaged and later married to Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan). This leaves Barney the only single character, and, according to Harris, Barney is "resentful" that the other characters have paired up . Later on, in season 5, he dates Robin . They end up breaking up not long after, once they both realize they are making one another miserable . </P> <P> Harris describes Barney as a man who "likes to create crazy situations and then sit back and watch it all go down ." He is an opportunist who manipulates any situation so that it goes his way . He is also highly competitive, and will take on "challenges" to complete outlandish tasks in order to prove his worth by often announcing "Challenge Accepted". He is proud and stubborn, and attempts to stand by his word no matter what . In "I Heart NJ", for example, he refuses to put down his fist unless someone offers him a fist bump . By the end of the episode, he has the same fist elevated in a sling after struggling to keep his fist up throughout the episode . In "Lucky Penny", when the others do not believe that he can run the New York City Marathon the next day without training, Barney immediately agrees to do so . Although he succeeds, he is unable to walk afterwards . Although he thinks of himself as worldly, Barney is sometimes extremely naive, believing many lies his mother told him well into adulthood, such as believing that Bob Barker is his father . </P> <P> Barney, like Harris himself, is an illusionist . His favorite types of magic tricks involve fire, as seen in the tenth episode of the second season, "Single Stamina" and in the fourth episode of the fourth season, "Intervention". Barney uses magic tricks mostly to pick up women . His most common method of picking up women is telling them elaborate lies about himself, often using an alias . Many of his schemes for picking up women are in a book he has written called "The Playbook", which is exposed in the episode "The Playbook". He has commitment issues, as evidenced in his reluctance to put a label on his relationship with Robin and the fact that she is one of the few women he has actually dated since the show started . </P> <P> Barney is very well - connected and is the most affluent member of the group . He frequently buys expensive items--such as a last - minute plane ticket to San Francisco, thousands of dollars in postage stamps, or two televisions specifically for smashing in frustration--in the spur of the moment . He is also something of a metrosexual; he waxes his chest, enjoys manicures and has an extensive knowledge of designer labels and gourmet food . However, he is also seen to have a gambling problem that he occasionally gets under control, only to relapse as seen in several episodes such as "Atlantic City", where he has gambling buddies in the Chinese Triad, and "Monday Night Football". </P>

What is barney job how i met your mother