Humans do not want equality.  We strive at every turn to create order and structure.  Specialization.  Division of labor.  A vast network of people taking orders from someone higher up the food chain, separated by invisible layers of social abstraction.

The seduction community attempts to manipulate this system by analyzing the correlation between certain behaviors and a desired effect.  The method is crude, but the attempt to examine causal relationships in human behavior is valid.

Understanding the rules of any system increases the odds of working that system in your favor.  In essence, gaming the game.

Unfortunately, the average Player doesn’t stand a chance if their Game fails at the concept level.  Here are a few common fuck-ups Pick Up Artists make in their basic understanding of Game.

1) The Shape of Things

Human understanding is inextricably bound to our perception of reality.  The things we create necessarily reflect the traits of their creators because we create them for our own advantage.

Humans don’t form perfect hierarchies.  The human brain does not processes information in a straight line.  There are gaps in our logic that cannot be mapped out in hard math.

The tired model of rigid human hierarchy is not adequate.  Journalists and IT geeks are witnessing this first hand.  This is why they are starting to restructure their understanding of information systems as heterarchies.

Think of heterarchy more as a network than a rigid pyramid.  If our brains process information in a layered network that possesses the traits of both hierarchy and heterarchy, then our social networks will reflect this.

2) Alpha

The basic premise of Game is that mimicking certain behaviors can make a person appear more “Alpha”, thus increasing their desirability.  However, understanding Alpha personalities as being at the top of the social structure, or even as being necessarily male is wrongheaded.

Players who understand human society as a hierarchical tribe are making these mistakes.

Alpha personalities are nexus points in a network of information.  Their value does not come from behaving a certain way.  It comes from how well they are connected into the network.

Real Alphas are not defined by their job or their paycheck.  Cars and clothes are superficial, and a person who defines themselves by these things has no deeper value to the people around them.

Alphas attract other people because they display an understanding of the world around them, and demonstrate their ability to influence it.  The movers and shakers of this world are not simply people of means, they use their ability to influence others to achieve what the Greeks called eudaimonia, a condition of human thriving.

3) Motivation

If your interest in Game is limited to getting laid, then your goals are short term.  You would be better off spending your time at the gym to get the results you are after.

However, if your interest is in being Alpha then you have to consider what it is that you really want from people, and examine the potential consequences of your actions.  Short-term flings and one night stands seem like a great idea to the try hard dickwad who hasn’t wet his prick in two months.  A few months of juggling girls will make a man reconsider his methods.

Once he develops a reputation in his social circle as a pump-and-dump jerkoff or he gives a girl a flaming case of Herpes, he will become so poisonous to his own Game that he’ll be stuck banging coke heads and IV drug users who don’t care about the sore on his cock, or are too fucked up to notice.

Manipulating people and using them for selfish gain might work in the short term, but the long term side effects of being a total asshole are worse than cancer.

Don’t believe me?  Ask Tucker Max how his movie did.

Tucker tapped into something when he demonstrated that there was something about acting like an asshole that got him laid.  He managed, in spite of himself, to become famous and planted his feet on the springboard to success.  Then he dove into an empty pool.  Acting like an arrogant prick only looks like confidence.  This is enough if you are trying to mind-fuck a drunk co-ed.  If you really want to win people over, then Dale Carnegie has forgotten more about the subject than Tucker Max ever knew.  Even if he’s read that book, he isn’t putting it to use.

People look to Alpha personalities for leadership and guidance.  Alphas have presence.  They exude confidence and enthusiasm.  Alphas push forward when others want to quit, and they get back up when they fail.  However, any bombastic asshole can fake this routine.  What separates an Alpha from an asshole is networking.

There is a difference between being a leader and being a dictator.  Leaders include.  They enhance other people’s self-worth.  They praise them, and fill them with confidence.  Leaders set an example worth following.  Leaders admit when they are wrong, and they genuinely listen to people.  Leaders invest in other people, and their reward is the rising tide of those they motivate.

Assholes are full of shit.

(First Published at The Spearhead)

I have a problem with Evolutionary Psychology.  Specifically, I have a problem with how some members of the Game community interpret Evolutionary Psychology.  Evo-Psyche is used to define what it is to be a Man.

Evolutionary Psychology is a scape-goat science being used to market a product.

Once upon a time, men turned to God for explanations.  God lives in the gaps.  Then Man discovered the Scientific Method.  In the search for Truth, Man applied logic and reason to natural phenomenon and gradually the need for God dwindled.

“God works in mysterious ways,” became Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Science began filling in the gaps in Man’s understanding of the world.  As methods improved, scientific credibility grew.  Then the scientific community developed a tragic flaw: hubris.

As recently as last year, scientists were suggesting that men were a dying breed.  Fifteen minutes ago, scientists announced that they were wrong.  Eggs are good, eggs are bad.  You too can lose weight eating nothing but bacon.

Science had long abused its credibility to push biased, misinformed, and under-investigated theories.  People listened because they wanted to believe what they were being told.  All they needed were the relevant statistics so they could plead authority.

Then Climategate broke and the wheels came off.

Evolutionary Psychology is not an exact science.  It is controversial, meaning debatable, and therefore far from perfect.  Before you quote Dawkins at me, understand what I’m saying.  I am not arguing that Evo-Psyche has no merit, nor am I arguing that it is not an advancing field.

What I am arguing is that Evolutionary Psychology is not grounds for making broad, deterministic statements about the nature of human beings.

When I read statements like “humans evolved to . . . ” or “nature intended”, the thinking part of my brain short-circuits.  Humans did not evolve to do anything.  Nature has no plan.  The idea that survival and replication are Nature’s/Evolution’s goal is quaint foolishness.

This may only be a trick of the language.  These kinds of statements may only be poor wording that conveys an unintended meaning.  Then again, they may be an extension of Argumentum ad Naturam.  Humans evolved that way, natural selection allows only the best, therefore people should behave according X,Y,Z.

Evolution is a process of happy accidents.

Humans did not evolve with opposable thumbs so that we could survive better.  We evolved with them because having them didn’t get us killed.  The fact that our thumbs are useful is only a bonus.

Evolution happens by kludging.  For every million or so harmful mutations, one comes along that happens to be benign, perhaps even useful.  There is no purpose behind it, humans “read” purpose onto Evolution.  We invest it with our own meaning.

Science is supposed to be about observable facts.

“Humans have forward looking eyes, a trait common to predatory animals,” is a valid scientific observation.

“Humans have forward looking eyes because they evolved to be predators,” is not.

Using Evolutionary Psychology to define Manhood makes it easy to reduce men to polyamorous breed machines.  Extrapolating how men are “supposed to be” from a series of lower level physical properties, however factual, is nothing more than reductive determinism.

Meanwhile, a generation of men emasculated by feminism and the Sexual Revolution mope around, dick-hurt about their clumsy love-lives and willing to blame anyone but themselves.  They turn to Game because the people marketing it wave a magic wand and say, “Science!”

Does Game work?  Sure it does . . . but I suspect that its success has more to do with the confidence a systematic approach instills in men than with the credibility of its scientific underpinnings.

Before you dust off your pitchfork and burn a cross on my lawn, think aboutwhy men want Game to be a Scientific Fact.  Men want sex.  Game promises them that.  If Game truly is the magic bullet, then anyone can land the girl(s) of their dreams and all they need is a little practice . . .

While you indulge this thought, which sounds like the male equivalent of a Cosmo cover article, consider how other scientifically proven products have benefited you.

Has your magic powder increased your natural testosterone 1500%?  Did that magic pill increase the size of your penis?

Did Xenedrine and Hydroxycut make you ripped?

If so, I’ve got some magic beans you’re gonna love . . .