A Book in Review: Models by Mark Manson

So, this book "Models" by Mark Manson has been very popular on this subreddit lately. When I first heard about it the name led me to believe that it would be a book full of sleezy PUA techniques of no real value at all. Since enough people were giving it praise I decided to take a look at the book myself and see what all the fuss is about. Luckily, I am glad to say that my first impressions about the book were wrong.

In my opinion, even though technically you cannot "solve" seduction I think that in most part Manson has figured out the heart and core around seduction. This book tackles seduction from almost every angle possible from inner game to clothing style. It covers all of the typical problems that men face when trying to go after girls.

In my time with Seduction I became disillusioned. I felt like all of the techniques were clogging up my mind and disallowed me to be who I was. I wasn't able to be myself because I would be too busy thinking about what to do next. It just made me nervous and I hated it to say the least. (And really I am saying the least for sake of time.) I thought that if I acted like myself then I would not get anywhere because nobody would like who I was on the inside. Manson's take on seduction shows exactly why I felt much freer and ultimately more successful once I threw away everything I had learned and just acted like myself.

In a nutshell, Manson's approach to seduction is very much based on inner game. No frills on top of it. The idea is to be three things:

*Honest and Truthful *Vulnerable and open to being rejected *Never be more invested in her than she is in you

The idea is to be honest in who you are and with your intentions. For instance, if you try to pick a girl up you should try and be yourself instead of pulling PUA techniques because at the end of the day that person is not you and by trying to be someone else you are ultimately being dishonest. This ties in a lot with vulnerability as well. The idea is to put yourself out there and to present yourself. Yes you might get rejected but without doing this the rate of failure will be that much higher as I am sure most of you are aware.

The idea about investment is a very new idea which I liked very much. The model of seduction on this subreddit and in the PUA community in general is of a sort of "act disinterested because if you act interested then she won't like you." This "aloof" sort of strategy doesn't work very well because girls ultimately never generate an opinion about you because there's nothing to have an opinion on. It allows one to stop being nonexistent and it allows one to go after chicks successfully without having to worry about things. It closes a huge paradox which has been floating around for a very long time. "If showing interest shows that I am of low value then how do I approach at all?" The point is that you can approach but you should do so in a way that shows that she can reject you outright and you won't care because you're not invested. Over time as her investment grows you can show more yourself. It's an amazing way to think about it.

There are some misconceptions on what it means to be Vulnerable. Remember, it's not about telling all of the sad stories you have about your life. Being vulnerable means putting yourself out there to be rejected. It means being able to say "I like you" because its not the act of liking a girl that makes her disinterested, it's being distraught if she says no that is the turn off. If you can be brave enough to put yourself out there like that then you make yourself vulnerable. This turns girls on. This is the way it's done. This is something a lot of people have trouble with in this community I find. I think it was the sole reason why I had so much trouble when I first started. I would always try to "take it slow" when in reality girls that I was going for were waiting impatiently for me to make a move.

What I like as well is that the book treats women like people. I feel that a lot of books are so focused on trying to find a formula to get with women that they get lost in the calculations and forget that women are people to. In the worst case scenario I have found that some of the thinking leads to very sexist thinking. I've seen this in myself and others. See /r/theredpill as an example of people who have gotten lost in sexist thinking. The sad part is that it borrows a lot of language and techniques from this subreddit. That can't be a good sign. This is something that I don't enjoy seeing as I think this subreddit is better than that. It's something that potentially threatens subreddits like this one. Seeing an approach to seduction which allows a woman to be human during the whole process is a huge breath of fresh air for me and it's one of the reasons why I think this book has the right approach.

Of course, there's more to this book than I can pack into this post. The main take away that I receive from this book may not be the same for what any of you might take away. This is why I feel like you should read the book for yourselves.

I would even make a motion to put it into the sidebar as "essential reading material".

I think that this subreddit should be "remodeled" around what this book says because it's so spot on. I know these are radical ideas but I think that as it stands, this subreddit has problems because it preaches a lot of techniques which *don't work*. Such as the idea of shit tests and whatever, the book explains why shit tests are not worth thinking about. There's of course more to it than that, but I feel that if more people read this book by coming across it in the sidebar that would be a small step to improving this subreddit and allowing all of us to be more successful with women.

Overall I feel like "Models" is a very sleek and refined approach to seduction that cuts away all of the bullshit which has piled up over the years. It allows one to be oneself while recognising that self improvement and inner game is the core of successful seduction. The techniques provided are easy to use and mindsets over rejection and all the other things are adjusted in the most perfect way possible. I cannot praise this book enough because it's exactly what led to my success with women after I forgot about all the techniques. It's not that I used the things that I learned form this book, it's that this process is what I learned and this book verifies it. Please take my advice and give it a shot. As someone who thought he had nothing left to learn and just wanted to read the book to check if it was any good I found myself learning even more from it.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great day. :) Please leave a comment, I am interested to hear what everyone has to think.

P.S.

Notice how I gave some controversial opinions in this post? That's an example of me being vulnerable. Im opening myself and my thoughts to you guys. If I don't do this then no useful change/growth is generated and I want this subreddit to grow to its full potential! Come at me! Think for yourself and tell me what you think!

Amazon link to Models by Mark Manson