What Pick-Up Artists Get Totally Wrong

EPISODE 82: Indicators of interest.

Many moons ago, in 2005, I read The Game by Neil Strauss.

I remember the book’s cover being black, imitation leather. I remember so much of the terminology: the intricate, NFL-style tactics and acronyms (DHV, IOI, HB). And I remember Strauss, the author, doing the thing that I should say, right here, that I did not: start off as a nonfiction writer, curious about the subculture of the professional pick-up artist (PUA), and become a practicioner myself.

But I bring all this up to say that I’ve watched the whole PUA subculture become less and less sub as time marched on.

It’s a phenomenon — an industry — that has also been monitored, it turns out, by our friends Sarah Spain and Charlotte Wilder. Who happen to know something important about this topic themselves.

So, on today’s Share & Tell, we wonder: What do pickup artists get totally wrong about successfully attracting women?

Should you get a QR code on your gravestone?

Did the three of us make a horrible, horrible mistake by talking about our old blogs in public?

ALSO: Mystery's sun necklace; scouting HB9's; crossfit; why your twenties are overrated; Pablog; gender dynamics in media; and the Dan Orlovsky of incels.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Mysteriously,

Pablo