A Note on Pick Up Artist (PUA) Techniques (PLEASE READ)

[Mark]

This site began years ago as a PUA-related site, but it no longer advises or condones the use of PUA-related techniques. With that said, certain PUA techniques are bound to come up in discussions and that's fine. But threads specifically condoning or advising men to use PUA techniques will be deleted for the following reasons:

• They're placebos for larger, underlying principles, and therefore are poor ways to teach and to learn improvement with women.
• Despite gaining short-term and superficial results, they often have a negative impact on a man's self-esteem.
• They're dubious in regards to female consent issues.
• Worse tactics border on being out-right manipulative and malicious.
• They promote a superficial measuring and objectification of one's social and emotional life which is not healthy for you nor the people you interact with.
• In the end, they're almost always a cover and diversion from a man dealing with his real (and more important) emotional problems.
  

For more information, please read the following posts:

• My Life as a Pick Up Artist - My experience becoming a successful PUA coach and the depression that followed.
• She's Out of Your League - Busting the myth that you can date a girl out of your league.
• Pick Up Placebos - Explanation of how most PUA techniques are placebos for solving deeper, underlying problems.
• How "Inner Game" Can Make You Worse - How many PUA teachings lower your self-esteem.
• Shit Test Paranoia - How the idea of the "shit test" causes men to become adversarial with the women they're trying to connect with.
• The Post-PUA Life - Tips to help men stop objectifying their lives and relationships again.
  

Also, The Rawness has a brilliant break down of PUA teachings and how they encourage narcissism in the people who use them. It's long, but highly recommended: http://therawness.com/reader-letters-1-part-4/


I also write extensively in my book Models about why PUA techniques, despite often being useful for short-term results, create long-term emotional issues in some men and are best left alone. In the book I offer an alternative method for improving one's dating life.

Models: Attract Women Through Honesty

There are more and more legitimate psychological studies which are testing out PUA techniques in controlled experiments. The results are still sparse, but they generally reflect what I've been saying: that the techniques work in getting external results, but often lead to more emotional problems and worse relationships.

Studies here:
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/25/pickup_2/ - Poorly written article, but based on a study that found that men of sexist viewpoints attracted women of sexist viewpoints and vice-versa and that PUA techniques promoted sexist views in men.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/study-...-makes-you - Study that found that techniques helped men get more phone numbers but that they felt worse about themselves afterwards.

Finally, I'll state it again for clarity: Postmasculine has moved beyond Pick Up Artist techniques and tactics. Discussion of them is OK, but condoning them or advising people to explicitly use them is not. On this forum we are more concerned with supporting personal development and growth, developing emotional maturity, increasing communication skills and helping men overcome any shame or anxiety they feel around women or sex. PUA tactics circumvent these issues in a superficial manner. We take them head on. If you're not interested in that, then you are on the wrong forum.