Here, let me do you the inestimable service of pasting from the intro...
“In attempting to deconstruct the American cultural climate that has produced the Seduction Community, I examine a few concrete factors: the continuously shifting aspects of men’s culture, the collapse of elaborate courtship rituals, the impact of feminist ideals on popular thought, and the proliferation of the Internet. Although these distinct elements can be identified as causes for the community’s existence, they are also intertwined in a complicated web. By recognizing these distinct aspects, however, I distinguish the motivations behind the formation and
explosion of the Seduction Community. I determine that the community is composed of many elements that are borrowed from America’s cultural past, making it more reflective than revolutionary. I propose that what is unique, however, is the distinct manner in which these various elements have coalesced to form a community of men, bonding through shared experiences and acting together to accomplish similar goals.”
Long story short: the author’s brother couldn’t get a girl, so he joined them; this is her account of the motivation of such people, tied in with an attempt at a comprehensive account (as she notes, the best general overview of the seduction community seems to be Wikipedia!).
Thanks, Gwern. I would add only that the thesis highlights that although prestige in the seduction community depends on having good game, this isn’t the only or even the main thing men get from membership.
If a man’s prestige in the seduction community depends on his reports of how many women he has seduced, then, in the absence of non-gameable standards of observational evidence, this potentially invalidates everything they have ever concluded about anything.
If a man’s prestige in the seduction community depends on his reports of how many women he has seduced, then, in the absence of non-gameable standards of observational evidence, this potentially invalidates everything they have ever concluded about anything.
As I understand it, gurus usually compete in the field, with students watching. It’s not how many you did pick up in the past, it’s how many can you pick up today, with what degree of elegance/speed, and with how “hot” of girls, as judged by the watching students. Such a rating method may not be objective, and lead to debates over who “won” a showdown, but it keeps them from devolving into complete non-usefulness.
By the way, in-field trainers and coaches are routinely expected to demonstrate for their students in the field, usually when, like Luke with Yoda, the student says that, “but that’s impossible!” (Trainers sometimes remark that this is the most pressure-filled part of their job, not because they need validation from the woman or fear rejection, but because they’ll be embarrassed in front of several students if they can’t show some kind of positive result on cue.)
As I understand it, gurus usually compete in the field, with students watching. It’s not how many you did pick up in the past, it’s how many can you pick up today, with what degree of elegance/speed, and with how “hot” of girls, as judged by the watching students.
Well, yes and no -- not every PUA is a guru. Go on the forums and you’ll see tons of pick-up stories. I’m not a PUA so I have no first-hand knowledge, but I think talking a good game gets eyes and respect.
If the feedback is esteem of students in the field, then you’re rewarding the mentor who picks his battles carefully, who can sell what happened on any encounter in a positive and understandable light. The honest mentors and ‘researchers’ who approach a varied population, analyze their performance without upselling, and accrete performance over time(as you’d expect with a real, generic skill) will lose out.
If the feedback is esteem of students in the field, then you’re rewarding the mentor who picks his battles carefully, who can sell what happened on any encounter in a positive and understandable light.
If I may: based on my minimal reading of PUA blogs & essays, I get the impression that picking battles carefully, & spinning losses, is exactly what is valuable about the techniques.
Consider the previously mentioned thesis: the author’s brother was not interested in a goal like ‘increasing, over the population of all females, the success of an approach’ or ‘learning how to pick up any girl’, but rather something like ‘how to get a reasonably attractive girl, period’. If the seduction techniques worked on only one girl in an entire bar (but infallibly), that’d be fine by them.
(I was particularly struck by one PUA who spent at least 2000 words discussing how to differentiate women who might sleep with him that night from ‘princesses’ who would require many dates and gifts before even considering sex.)
Consider the previously mentioned thesis: the author’s brother was not interested in a goal like ‘increasing, over the population of all females, the success of an approach’ or ‘learning how to pick up any girl’, but rather something like ‘how to get a reasonably attractive girl, period’.
Exactly, which is why talking about statistical models in this context is “academic”, in the sense of “interesting to academics, but not particularly relevant to practitioners”. Statistical models from experimental research can certainly inform practical approaches, but sometimes, one has to be “sorry for the Good Lord” in reverse: the theory may be utterly, totally, wrong, and yet still work.
If you want your rationality to protect something, let it protect results rather than “truth”.
If the seduction techniques worked on only one girl in an entire bar (but infallibly), that’d be fine by them.
Well, as long as it was a girl they were interested in! ;-)
But by the same token, the reader of a self-help book is only interested in whether a technique fixes their problem, not a problem or all problems. The bigger picture of truth and generalizability is—rightly and rationally—not their concern.
If you want your rationality to protect something, let it protect results rather than “truth”.
Yuck. Furthermore, yuck.
Don’t get me wrong—results are very important. But getting the model right is the only way to guarantee results. Get the model wrong, and one day you might to do the equivalent of filling your car’s gas tank with acetone.
> (I was particularly struck by one PUA who spent at least 2000 words discussing how to differentiate women who might sleep with him that night from ‘princesses’ who would require many dates and gifts before even considering sex.)
Here, let me do you the inestimable service of pasting from the intro...
Long story short: the author’s brother couldn’t get a girl, so he joined them; this is her account of the motivation of such people, tied in with an attempt at a comprehensive account (as she notes, the best general overview of the seduction community seems to be Wikipedia!).
Thanks, Gwern. I would add only that the thesis highlights that although prestige in the seduction community depends on having good game, this isn’t the only or even the main thing men get from membership.
If a man’s prestige in the seduction community depends on his reports of how many women he has seduced, then, in the absence of non-gameable standards of observational evidence, this potentially invalidates everything they have ever concluded about anything.
As I understand it, gurus usually compete in the field, with students watching. It’s not how many you did pick up in the past, it’s how many can you pick up today, with what degree of elegance/speed, and with how “hot” of girls, as judged by the watching students. Such a rating method may not be objective, and lead to debates over who “won” a showdown, but it keeps them from devolving into complete non-usefulness.
By the way, in-field trainers and coaches are routinely expected to demonstrate for their students in the field, usually when, like Luke with Yoda, the student says that, “but that’s impossible!” (Trainers sometimes remark that this is the most pressure-filled part of their job, not because they need validation from the woman or fear rejection, but because they’ll be embarrassed in front of several students if they can’t show some kind of positive result on cue.)
Okay. That works.
Well, yes and no -- not every PUA is a guru. Go on the forums and you’ll see tons of pick-up stories. I’m not a PUA so I have no first-hand knowledge, but I think talking a good game gets eyes and respect.
Doesn’t that make the problem worse, though?
If the feedback is esteem of students in the field, then you’re rewarding the mentor who picks his battles carefully, who can sell what happened on any encounter in a positive and understandable light. The honest mentors and ‘researchers’ who approach a varied population, analyze their performance without upselling, and accrete performance over time(as you’d expect with a real, generic skill) will lose out.
If I may: based on my minimal reading of PUA blogs & essays, I get the impression that picking battles carefully, & spinning losses, is exactly what is valuable about the techniques.
Consider the previously mentioned thesis: the author’s brother was not interested in a goal like ‘increasing, over the population of all females, the success of an approach’ or ‘learning how to pick up any girl’, but rather something like ‘how to get a reasonably attractive girl, period’. If the seduction techniques worked on only one girl in an entire bar (but infallibly), that’d be fine by them.
(I was particularly struck by one PUA who spent at least 2000 words discussing how to differentiate women who might sleep with him that night from ‘princesses’ who would require many dates and gifts before even considering sex.)
Exactly, which is why talking about statistical models in this context is “academic”, in the sense of “interesting to academics, but not particularly relevant to practitioners”. Statistical models from experimental research can certainly inform practical approaches, but sometimes, one has to be “sorry for the Good Lord” in reverse: the theory may be utterly, totally, wrong, and yet still work.
If you want your rationality to protect something, let it protect results rather than “truth”.
Well, as long as it was a girl they were interested in! ;-)
But by the same token, the reader of a self-help book is only interested in whether a technique fixes their problem, not a problem or all problems. The bigger picture of truth and generalizability is—rightly and rationally—not their concern.
Yuck. Furthermore, yuck.
Don’t get me wrong—results are very important. But getting the model right is the only way to guarantee results. Get the model wrong, and one day you might to do the equivalent of filling your car’s gas tank with acetone.
> (I was particularly struck by one PUA who spent at least 2000 words discussing how to differentiate women who might sleep with him that night from ‘princesses’ who would require many dates and gifts before even considering sex.)
Do you still have a link?
barfs
His term, not mine. Disgusting as it may be, it conveys his point with exceptional clarity.
That would be the case if the students were buying just the experience of watching the guru. The students expect rather more than that.