At first I was convinced I was stumbling upon some genius, but now I am deeply confused by the whole thing. Pickup seems like it has so many built in contradictions. It is supposed to be about building your own self-esteem, but it seems to have the opposite effect. Relying on game to seduce women seems like a dead-end, for one you are admitting that you require tricks and manipulations in the first place. Some characters in the book are basically sociopaths, with the entire point to learn to manipulate people instead of build meaningful relationships. Towards the end I came to the same conclusion Neil did, that meaningless relationships and sex is at its core unfulfilling.

The net result of a pickup artist is this empty, soulless husk of a human being with programs and subroutines. Instead of legitimately attracting people, you are building this facade that simply hides the person underneath long enough to get into the panties. Going out with the intent to "Sarge" seems like it would be less effective than legitimately going out to have fun and include as many new people in your group as possible.

Like negative learning, it can have a more damaging effect than helpful. I guess what I gained from the book was the concept of improving yourself till you have natural confidence and are a socially interesting person has a far bigger effect on your ability to be successful with women than any techniques or mind-games you might try. No matter how good the routine you learned is, unless you came up with it yourself you are being fraudulent, and eventually the truth will be revealed.

That said, without the initial draw of seduction he would have never gone on his adventure in the first place, so there is definitely something to be said for using a reason, any reason to get out and interact with people, so whatever yours is, keep it going. I will base mine on the fact that there is a benefit to actually connecting with people that goes far beyond sex.

I will say that this subreddit is a huge database of valuable information, as long as it is approached with the right mentality. I plan on sifting through the bad, to find the gems out there. I also want to show my appreciation for you guys, you are like a support group for social retards, and for that I thank you.