I sat in a comfy chair in a Costa cafe today, sipping on a hot latte and letting my mind wander. All told I was ensconced in my bubble of tranquillity for around two hours and loved every second of it [1]. Measured in terms of happiness, it was a successful deployment of my resources. That said, I achieved absolutely nothing. Time passed, I enjoyed it, but I gained no new experience in anything of value. Which was the point. But what if I had wanted to “move forwards” with some area of my life? [2] To move forwards we need to do things. By doing things we accumulate experiences. These experiences are the fuel we shovel into the Improvement Furnace [3].
“Here, take another set”
Activities which get you out into the world doing things, especially difficult things in an uncontrolled environment, are great for rapidly accumulating experiences. That’s one reason sports are so good for kids – they learn about all kinds of things tangential to the sport itself from the very act of doing sport [6]. How about daygame? What does an extended period of in-field work give you?
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Saturday rolls around and you’re feeling that ominous dread in your gut at the thought of hitting the streets and talking to women. You don’t much fancy the sting of rejections nor the negative feedback it suggests as to the current state of your Game and SMV. Nonetheless, you potter through your own personalised pre-daygame ritual [7] and get those first few sets in. The AA dissipates and you might end up with a good session.
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Improvement Furnace result: increased ability to overrule hindbrain angst using forebrain willpower
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Mid-way through that Saturday session you still haven’t hit your stride. The weasels are chattering in your ear, trying to talk you out of it. One particular set goes badly, a girl just waving you away while you’re left hanging. You think you catch a ghost of a smirk on your wing’s face, laughing at you. Negativity surges from deep down. You remember something similar happened the week before and you’d spent the rest of the afternoon ranting about how women are bitches, game is shit, and really it’s a much smarter plan to just save money and fuck whores. You’d gone to bed that night feeling terrible, having talked yourself into a seething mess. “Not today!” you tell yourself. Rather than bitch and moan to your wing about the blowout you shrug your shoulders, chalk it to the game, and resume your usual positive self talk. “Fuck me, she wasn’t having it was she?” you laugh. Your wing agrees. Crisis over, vibe maintained. You can feel the session begin to shift towards the positive.
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Improvement Furnace result: improved emotional control and increased ability to manage your own vibe
“Let me guess, I look French? Bye bye, loser”
It’s getting on to 5pm now and you’ve had a couple of good sets. You’re pretty glad you came out and especially pleased with yourself for overcoming the earlier wobbles. A pretty girl flashes you what might have been an IOI. You’re not sure but there was something there, vanishingly subtle but you’ve been practising your sensitivity to IOIs and you think that might’ve been one. You go in. She lights up and giggles, hooking immediately. The set goes great and about four minutes in you just get the sense “this girl fancies me, and she doesn’t want me to go”.
“Look, I was thinking about having a coffee over there. Would you like to join me?”
She enthusiastically agrees and comes off on the idate. At that point you don’t know if there’s anything in it, but daygame has just generated another experience for you.
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Improvement Furnace result: improved ability to recognise, interpret and act upon subtle social cues.
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I could go on [8]. My point is that whatever immediate tangible results you are getting (or not getting) from daygame, so long as you keep going out the Daygame Infinite Experience Machine is replenishing your fuel stores and keeping the Improvement Furnace going. There are all kinds of active and passive skills levelling up in the background like a real life Skyrim character [9]. You still need your introspection, your theoretical study, and your process of continuous improvement. Just don’t forget that you also need the fuel of new experiences and can feel blessed that the streets are always there and thus you can always go out and replenish your stocks.
Cigarette break at the foundary
[1] Indeed I’d highly recommend you try that sort of thing more often for the relaxing effect it has on you.
[2] Other than happiness. And aint no one got time for that.
[3] And perhaps the animal holding the shovel is Improvement Furnace Otter, should you be of the indulgent neurotic type who wishes to personalise these sorts of things. [4]
[4] Was that mean? [5]
[5] Probably was, wasn’t it. I think I don’t have a strong leash on Needless Insult Leopard today.
[6] I’m referring to things such as teamwork, self-control etc
[7] In London, mine came to involve the Number 13 bus, a Starbucks filter coffee with semi-skimmed milk, and an M&S sausage roll.
[8] But I won’t
[9] If you take an arrow to the knee, you may need to transition towards coffee shop game.
