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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
Human population is a zoo on its own with all the predator prey stuff going on. Nice guide for bar behavior :)
funny
informative
fast-paced
If you read it as fiction, it’s got wonderful voice. It’s appalling when you realize the author is a real person who held and still holds these poisonous and abusive mentalities. He is not someone to idolize.
Though well written, this is the stupidest book I’ve ever mostly read. I picked it up accidentally seeing it on a recommendation list next to a book on con artists (thinking it was about that). Wow, the people in this book...wow. What a weird, warped, waste.
I am not sure how do I feel about this book.
For someone unfamiliar with the pickup artist scene, this book did a decent job in outlining his journey in this lifestyle. In a way this comes across as a refreshing point of view about someone going through the PUA training, rising to fame and eventually seeing the dissolution of his inner circle/entourage. The sub-plot on Lisa adds a little twist to the story but this novelty effect slowly got dissipated by the overall plot.
However, something about the tone and angle of the book frustrates me -- not the constant objectification of women but the emotion/cognitive disconnect in the events. At the end of the day, I don’t feel much about Style or Mystery’s friendship, the community, or the emotional conflict that they go through.
Still not sure if time spent on this book is time well spent.
For someone unfamiliar with the pickup artist scene, this book did a decent job in outlining his journey in this lifestyle. In a way this comes across as a refreshing point of view about someone going through the PUA training, rising to fame and eventually seeing the dissolution of his inner circle/entourage. The sub-plot on Lisa adds a little twist to the story but this novelty effect slowly got dissipated by the overall plot.
However, something about the tone and angle of the book frustrates me -- not the constant objectification of women but the emotion/cognitive disconnect in the events. At the end of the day, I don’t feel much about Style or Mystery’s friendship, the community, or the emotional conflict that they go through.
Still not sure if time spent on this book is time well spent.
When I found the book, I expected it to be a good thing. In the middle of a pile strewn across the floor, it was beautiful; leather bound with gold edge pages and a ribbon bookmark, lying face down. The back was blank. I thought it was a bible. I was mildly surprised to find one in the middle of the "active" books in Gabe's room, but nonetheless I picked it up and flipped through briefly, waiting for a verse to jump out at me and change my life. Instead I saw comic illustrations with titles like "Select a Target", "Disarm the Obstacles", "Isolate the Target", and "Extract to a Seduction Location".
I had stumbled across a manual on pick up art. [The Game - Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss]
The illustrations were attractive, and the snippets I'd scanned were interesting. My curiosity got the best of me, and I began to read.
It was less than three chapters - and barely an introduction - before I was interrupted. I was so glad for the distraction. The author was more crude than I prefer, and his reference to women as objects offended me. While I wasn't surprised that a considerable number of men wanted nothing more than as many hook ups as possible, I was disturbed to see the distance they would go to persuade a woman. I marked my page anyway though, and thought about it a lot while I enjoyed my weekend.
When I went home two days later, I took it with me. For two weeks, it sat on my nightstand, untouched. I then showed it to my sister, who was appalled at the idea, but curious enough to start reading. After two chapters, she put it down, disgusted, and left my house without a word. Three days later, I continued reading where I'd left off. Strauss made me laugh, made me angry, and occasionally even made me feel bad for a character. I couldn't put it down. I was reading, every chance I got. The Game joined me at the dentist's office, and while I'm usually easily distracted by television, I couldn't even be bothered to notice it when I was reading.
I feel like such a traitor.
I had stumbled across a manual on pick up art. [The Game - Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss]
The illustrations were attractive, and the snippets I'd scanned were interesting. My curiosity got the best of me, and I began to read.
It was less than three chapters - and barely an introduction - before I was interrupted. I was so glad for the distraction. The author was more crude than I prefer, and his reference to women as objects offended me. While I wasn't surprised that a considerable number of men wanted nothing more than as many hook ups as possible, I was disturbed to see the distance they would go to persuade a woman. I marked my page anyway though, and thought about it a lot while I enjoyed my weekend.
When I went home two days later, I took it with me. For two weeks, it sat on my nightstand, untouched. I then showed it to my sister, who was appalled at the idea, but curious enough to start reading. After two chapters, she put it down, disgusted, and left my house without a word. Three days later, I continued reading where I'd left off. Strauss made me laugh, made me angry, and occasionally even made me feel bad for a character. I couldn't put it down. I was reading, every chance I got. The Game joined me at the dentist's office, and while I'm usually easily distracted by television, I couldn't even be bothered to notice it when I was reading.
I feel like such a traitor.
There's an interesting article I found before I read this book that really gives some insight into the pick up world as it stands now, years after The Game came out. ANTI-PUAS
When I first noticed that title, on a site like Jezebel, I just naturally assumed it was a place devoted to dissecting what's so broken and wrong about pick up artist culture. But nope, it's basically the equivalent of an anti-scam artist page. These guys are all furious and filled with misogynistic rage because the canned patter and mind games didn't get them laid.
Here's the thing, and it's something that even Strauss discovered by the end of the book: memes have a saturation point. Trying to use the standard pick up artist tactics from these books is like asking "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Most people are at least passingly familiar with the concept, and will not be impressed. Even as a person who never watched Mystery's TV show I still had at least a basic knowledge of negging and peacocking just from people making fun of it.
Because really, anytime pick up artists are mentioned outside their own context, it's to make fun of them. A PUA (which sounds like the noise you make when you spit out something that's gone bad) will try to tell you that we're all just jealous or in denial of our primal instincts or just lack what it takes. But PUAs seem to be powered by two things, acronyms and rationalizations.
Strauss' book is rotten with acronyms and PUA slang. 3% of the book is entirely devoted to a glossary of all these needless terms.
And the rationalizations about their behavior are a constant force. Most of the PUAs are constantly reading, so they can throw out some biology study to justify their promiscuity and bad behavior. The most memorable justification to me was "It's not lying, it's flirting." After a while it's hard to not just yell at my Kindle, "No. You're lying. It's all lies, deceptions, or manipulation. You know who else uses this much weaselly language to support their behavior? Con artists. You are a sexual con artist."
What separates Neil Strauss from most of the people he documents is that Strauss internalized the reasons why all the advice and tactics worked, and used it to build his self esteem and create new tactics. And because he's a thinking person who got into it because he genuinely felt he lacked something, he's the same type who would of course leave the community when he realized that the community had much more limited interests and values.
Because really, the bulk of the pick up artist industry is basically trying to turn horny, socially-retarded nerds into sexual sociopaths. They aren't using this information to teach true confidence, they're memorizing the words and patterns like it's a cheat code in a video game. Just type IDKFA to get 9.5 ho at a club to kiss you!
No wonder they get angry when they realize everyone's already heard these cheesy lines, and that sometimes even the dumbest girls have already had more than one guy in a flamboyant outfit try to screw with her head.
What really fascinated me was a comment that even Strauss himself made early on, that some girls just don't respond to the pick up artist tactics. He dismissed this by saying those are the girls they don't want anyway, but it's worth digging into. Some people, no matter how fancy your pitch, know bullshit when they hear it. The demeanor of a sales pitch, no matter how sly, is going to be visible to some people. So the PUA tactics, by nature, remove any girls who are even halfway perceptive. This, at least to me, actually makes the whole thing more predatory.
It also makes it terrible for those few PUAs in the book who say they're looking for a girlfriend. If we're all looking for a partner with quality, this is narrowing it down to some of the wrong traits.
The best put down to the whole process actually came from Tom Cruise, who Strauss interviewed because unlike a lot of the PUAs, Strauss actually had a pretty decent career, which allowed him to do celebrity interviews for places like Rolling Stone.
To quote Cruise, ”A lot of that stuff is about trying to control people and manipulate situations. Can you imagine all the effort they’re putting into that? If they took that effort and put it toward something constructive, who knows what they could accomplish.“
Like a bullet through the heart of all other arguments. Tom Cruise may be one of the most ridiculous figures in acting, but the guy is more or less made of confidence.
Even when I was young at utterly clueless about women, this sort of behavior never really appealed to me. Sure, I wanted a girlfriend, but the methods PUAs use involved spending massive amounts of time, money, and effort. While it seems to provide some measure of sexual success, it doesn't seem to make most of them any smarter, any more successful, any wealthier, or any healthier in anything except perhaps pelvis strength.
One of the PUA techniques they kept referring to was to "show value", where you do a magic trick or otherwise entertain the target. You know what attracts normal women? Actual value. Seriously, pick up a new hobby, go back to school, start working out, join a book club, anything that would give you more value in mind or body. There are probably women who will respond to that.
I'd like to give this a higher score, since it's well paced and Strauss has a knack for being thorough without it being unwieldy, but I feel like his journalism is miles ahead of his writing.
Hunter S. Thompson always had a knack for writing from inside hellish scenarios with a good perspective. The trouble with Strauss is that the perspective only comes in sporadically, a line pointing out the foolishness of the PUAs before diving back into denial. Only at the end does he deliver a moral about the hollowness of the lifestyle, and it's hard to really swallow after reading the Wikipedia article about him breaking up with the girl he's with at the end and starting a dating business.
There are also times when it seems like Strauss still speaks from a place of insecurity. Name dropping the books he's reading to show off his intellect just raises an eyebrow, but the narrative seems to give the impression that he's somehow above the behavior other PUAs engaged in, even when he's just described himself participating in that exact same behavior. It feels like we're getting a picture of Strauss himself that's distorted by his own ego. His own journalistic clarity doesn't extend to himself nearly as consistently.
But the most offensive blind spot is how little he seems to comment on the misogynistic nature of the whole affair. When you basically treat women as disposible targets, it's weird not to comment on how objectifying that is. Considering how much he talks about the community turning men into robots, the absence of much discussion of how it teaches them to view women feels like a lost opportunity.
It's still an entertaining read, and definitely worth recommending to anyone with a young daughter. The guide ends up being a very effective guide on how to spot a pick up artist in the wild.
When I first noticed that title, on a site like Jezebel, I just naturally assumed it was a place devoted to dissecting what's so broken and wrong about pick up artist culture. But nope, it's basically the equivalent of an anti-scam artist page. These guys are all furious and filled with misogynistic rage because the canned patter and mind games didn't get them laid.
Here's the thing, and it's something that even Strauss discovered by the end of the book: memes have a saturation point. Trying to use the standard pick up artist tactics from these books is like asking "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Most people are at least passingly familiar with the concept, and will not be impressed. Even as a person who never watched Mystery's TV show I still had at least a basic knowledge of negging and peacocking just from people making fun of it.
Because really, anytime pick up artists are mentioned outside their own context, it's to make fun of them. A PUA (which sounds like the noise you make when you spit out something that's gone bad) will try to tell you that we're all just jealous or in denial of our primal instincts or just lack what it takes. But PUAs seem to be powered by two things, acronyms and rationalizations.
Strauss' book is rotten with acronyms and PUA slang. 3% of the book is entirely devoted to a glossary of all these needless terms.
And the rationalizations about their behavior are a constant force. Most of the PUAs are constantly reading, so they can throw out some biology study to justify their promiscuity and bad behavior. The most memorable justification to me was "It's not lying, it's flirting." After a while it's hard to not just yell at my Kindle, "No. You're lying. It's all lies, deceptions, or manipulation. You know who else uses this much weaselly language to support their behavior? Con artists. You are a sexual con artist."
What separates Neil Strauss from most of the people he documents is that Strauss internalized the reasons why all the advice and tactics worked, and used it to build his self esteem and create new tactics. And because he's a thinking person who got into it because he genuinely felt he lacked something, he's the same type who would of course leave the community when he realized that the community had much more limited interests and values.
Because really, the bulk of the pick up artist industry is basically trying to turn horny, socially-retarded nerds into sexual sociopaths. They aren't using this information to teach true confidence, they're memorizing the words and patterns like it's a cheat code in a video game. Just type IDKFA to get 9.5 ho at a club to kiss you!
No wonder they get angry when they realize everyone's already heard these cheesy lines, and that sometimes even the dumbest girls have already had more than one guy in a flamboyant outfit try to screw with her head.
What really fascinated me was a comment that even Strauss himself made early on, that some girls just don't respond to the pick up artist tactics. He dismissed this by saying those are the girls they don't want anyway, but it's worth digging into. Some people, no matter how fancy your pitch, know bullshit when they hear it. The demeanor of a sales pitch, no matter how sly, is going to be visible to some people. So the PUA tactics, by nature, remove any girls who are even halfway perceptive. This, at least to me, actually makes the whole thing more predatory.
It also makes it terrible for those few PUAs in the book who say they're looking for a girlfriend. If we're all looking for a partner with quality, this is narrowing it down to some of the wrong traits.
The best put down to the whole process actually came from Tom Cruise, who Strauss interviewed because unlike a lot of the PUAs, Strauss actually had a pretty decent career, which allowed him to do celebrity interviews for places like Rolling Stone.
To quote Cruise, ”A lot of that stuff is about trying to control people and manipulate situations. Can you imagine all the effort they’re putting into that? If they took that effort and put it toward something constructive, who knows what they could accomplish.“
Like a bullet through the heart of all other arguments. Tom Cruise may be one of the most ridiculous figures in acting, but the guy is more or less made of confidence.
Even when I was young at utterly clueless about women, this sort of behavior never really appealed to me. Sure, I wanted a girlfriend, but the methods PUAs use involved spending massive amounts of time, money, and effort. While it seems to provide some measure of sexual success, it doesn't seem to make most of them any smarter, any more successful, any wealthier, or any healthier in anything except perhaps pelvis strength.
One of the PUA techniques they kept referring to was to "show value", where you do a magic trick or otherwise entertain the target. You know what attracts normal women? Actual value. Seriously, pick up a new hobby, go back to school, start working out, join a book club, anything that would give you more value in mind or body. There are probably women who will respond to that.
I'd like to give this a higher score, since it's well paced and Strauss has a knack for being thorough without it being unwieldy, but I feel like his journalism is miles ahead of his writing.
Hunter S. Thompson always had a knack for writing from inside hellish scenarios with a good perspective. The trouble with Strauss is that the perspective only comes in sporadically, a line pointing out the foolishness of the PUAs before diving back into denial. Only at the end does he deliver a moral about the hollowness of the lifestyle, and it's hard to really swallow after reading the Wikipedia article about him breaking up with the girl he's with at the end and starting a dating business.
There are also times when it seems like Strauss still speaks from a place of insecurity. Name dropping the books he's reading to show off his intellect just raises an eyebrow, but the narrative seems to give the impression that he's somehow above the behavior other PUAs engaged in, even when he's just described himself participating in that exact same behavior. It feels like we're getting a picture of Strauss himself that's distorted by his own ego. His own journalistic clarity doesn't extend to himself nearly as consistently.
But the most offensive blind spot is how little he seems to comment on the misogynistic nature of the whole affair. When you basically treat women as disposible targets, it's weird not to comment on how objectifying that is. Considering how much he talks about the community turning men into robots, the absence of much discussion of how it teaches them to view women feels like a lost opportunity.
It's still an entertaining read, and definitely worth recommending to anyone with a young daughter. The guide ends up being a very effective guide on how to spot a pick up artist in the wild.
One of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time...I actually picked it up after going to a talk by a sociology professor who was studying "pre-gaming" (gearing up to go out).
***SEMI-SPOILER***
The sad epilogue is that the hot girl he pulls left him for Robbie Williams after the book was published.
***SEMI-SPOILER***
The sad epilogue is that the hot girl he pulls left him for Robbie Williams after the book was published.
Story of Strauss' (known as Style) time becoming and living as a pickup artist. Characters in the book are well known PUAs such as Mystery and David DeAngelo. Claims to be a true story.
I was skeptical. I thought this book was going to be a handbook to gaming women. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it wasn't. It was the tale of a mans journey into the community and his rise to the top. Its a great read and I highly recommend it. You may not take to heart the techniques taught in the book but its interesting to know there is a subset of people out there who made it their life's mission to dissect every single interaction between a man and woman with the goal of attracting their "target". I personally enjoyed reading it both from an informative standpoint and a entertainment only stand point. I probably won't be trying to pick-up women because of this book but if I'm out and looking for something to do for the next 30 minutes, I might try something for fun. Must read 5/5