Adventures of a Pick-Up Artist
Pick Up Artist

There are people I know who have never even heard of The Game by Neil Strauss, let alone read it, who are naturally confident, funny, and good with women. They’re naturals, and there is something about them which women find irresistible.

Granted, there are literally only a couple of people I’ve met in my life who are like this, but they ooze confidence and testosterone, and are able to seduce women seemingly at ease, which leads me to the question of this article.

Can someone who has become really good at pick up outgame a natural?

The answer isn’t about yes or no, and I personally think it’s the question that is more interesting, as it offers an insight into the mindset of the average PUA. PU breaks down interaction into a series of phases, which are all part of a greater ‘system’, in which some people are able to perform to a greater level than others. The fact is, that in life, some people are going to be more attracted to certain kinds of people than others, regardless of how confident the person that they don’t choose is, or what ‘attraction switches’ they activate.

In short, I know a couple of non PUAs who could happily out-game Neil Strauss, Mystery and any other ‘MPUAs’ in the world. They wouldn’t be running game, or routines etc, they would just be themselves, witty, engaging, supremely confident, and outwardly seductive.

Their ‘inner game’ is taken care of, to the extent that it is something that they probably won’t have ever felt the need to address, and they will have genuine pre selection, without needing to affect any kind of behaviour that isn’t totally true to themselves.

In some cases a PUA can outgame a natural, however this may be due to the fact that the PUA has actually become quite an attractive person, not because they’re running game. PU gives guys who struggle to talk to girls the chance to compete with naturals, but it by no means offers an unbreakable system that will guarantee results in every circumstance, despite the fact that ‘gurus’ often market it as such.

More importantly, an MPUA shouldn’t care about being out-gamed, as they should be enjoying the peace of mind that success brings, and therefore wouldn’t need to qualify themselves to anyone.

Sometimes we can forget that this is actually interaction, not a system that needs to be broken down and analysed. Pick up can teach you how to be a more interesting better, more attractive person, but it’s not about winning, or defeating other people, it’s about enjoying life.

Sometimes with all the best ‘game’ in the world, a girl will just be attracted to someone else. So who’d ‘win’ out of a natural and a PUA? Who cares? If everyone is enjoying life, and exercising choice with women then surely everyone’s happy? You win some and you loose some, and whilst the game can give you a better shot at success, but it’s never guaranteed.

Brad

Most people in this community are aware of the transformations that The Game can achieve. None are more dramatic than that of Strauss himself, who went from being a dateless AFC who wondered if he would ever find someone, to becoming a sliver tounged Lothario, capable of seducing women on a level, and even becoming even more capable than those who had taught him.

His story gave hope to millions, and he soon had an army of followers, as men across the world started using his methods to seduce women. Thousands of men have testified to how the game has transformed their lives from socially inept geeks to smooth talking seducers.

However, the journey from someone who can’t even talk to women, let alone get a date, to becoming a pick up artist who has almost complete choice with women, is not an overnight, or smooth transition. It often takes months of approaches and rejections before someone can hone their game and start building confidence to be really good.

The Pick Up Artist on VH1 is aiming to compress this process into just a few weeks, and the contestants will be expected to get dramatic results in a very short amount of time. Granted they will be being trained by Mystery, supposedly one of the greatest pick up artists of all time, however it’s debatable about what even he can do to transform the love lives of a relatively large number of hapless men.

It will also be interesting to see how the Mystery Method fares in modern society. It’s arguably a victim of its own success, and the lines and techniques that Mystery teaches are now quite well known. So does asking for a girl’s opinion, before gnetly lowering her self esteem through negs still work in the field? Or will savy girls start blowing their cover?

I’d like to say that we’ll find answers from watching the second series of The Pick Up Artist, however reality TV is not the most genuine of formats, and it’s going to be difficult to judge exactly how good the contestants are, and who’s performances are totally genuine, as opposed to who is being stage managed and selected to stay, due to their qualities which make them suitable for reality TV.

Becoming a master pick up artist takes years of studying and practicing theory, and isn’t an honour that can be bestowed upon someone after a few weeks of being filmed. I would love to see a program mapping the transformation of someone over the course of months from a man who couldn’t even look a girl in the eye, to someone who can seduce the attractive women of their choice. It’s a process that I’ve both undergone myself, and witnessed, and only hope that The Pick Up Artist on VH1 can do it justice.

Brad