The following is part of a series on pick-up artists by reader and MVP commenter Johnny:
“Naturals” are guys whose talent for getting laid occurred organically. Maybe they’re really good-looking, maybe they figured out how to push female buttons early on – but the natural is who the Pick-Up Artist (PUA) seeks to emulate. So there are three potential stages of PUA development — but there’s only one type you really want to date:
1. The not-there-yet PUA. These guys are trying. Oh, how they try. Unfortunately their attempts are weird, creepy, annoying, etc. These are the guys who annoy every woman in the bar with cheesy openers till a bouncer throws them out.
2. The just-arrived PUA. He’s done his homework, he’s done his legwork, and it’s paying off. For the first time in his life, he’s swimmin’ in women. He’s on cloud 9 – a state of euphoria. It truly is intoxicating to go from regular guy to player – fills you with a kind of madness. Women are conquests to this guy, a source of validation and confidence. It’s not nice, but imagine turning a starving man loose on an all-you-can-eat buffet.
3. The PUA who has become natural. He’s internalized the things he needs to know to get laid, while loosening up a little about the “rules.” He has forgotten the anxiety and longing of a shitty sex life, but is no longer high on pussy (developed a tolerance, I guess?). These guys have more or less transitioned into the sort of man they sought to emulate in the first place. They’re confident rather than arrogant, satisfied rather than gluttted.
I find this stuff fascinating. One of the best books on it is “The Game” by Neil Strauss. Required reading for all the single ladies. The book really focuses on the negatives of #2 type PUAs. But in interviews, Strauss really defended the positives of #3 type PUAs.
Yup, read it. Like many guys that was my gateway to PU. Glad you saw value in it for female readers – I do too.
Although Strauss’s techniques and methods were always criticized by the mainstream and have fallen out of favor with the PU community, his breakdown of social dynamics and body language really is exhaustive and brilliant.
Years ago I got beaten out for a woman’s affection by a PUA, although I didn’t know it at the time. He was peacocked, he carried around a deck of cards, he had all these little games like “fuck marry kill,” etc. Sounds ridiculous now that we’ve all seen Mystery’s show, but keep in mind there was a time no one knew these tricks. Anyway he got laid and I didn’t. About a year later I picked up the game and went, “mother… FUCKER!” He had followed the script to the letter, and all the girls were eating from his hands.