There are some men on here that kinda have this attitude of "Just cut the shit. You don't need all these tricks. They are for chumps." I've dealt with these kinds of guys for years being in the PUA world and it always makes me smile because they are simply Direct Method guys criticizing the Indirect Method guys. Let me elaborate on the pros and cons of each one.

Direct Method has, and always will be, a high risk/high reward path towards picking up women. You are revealing your intentions from the start. It relies heavily on physical presence. You need good clothing, tone of voice, body language, and eye contact. What you say doesn't really matter much and the least amount of effort goes into planning that.

The cons of Direct are that you will get a lot of rejection and missed opportunities because you jumped the gun and convinced yourself that if she didn't take your assertive approach then she's not worth your time, but actually it's just the nature of coming on very strong at the start. It's like physics. Some women are just not comfortable with that approach and will reject you on instinct and not because they don't think you're good looking or a nice guy.

The pros are that if you actually pull it off and she goes for it then you would have skipped many many steps that Indirect guys go through and find yourself right in the middle of the seduction phase. It also works better for day game. Where the women you meet are going on errands, shopping and don't have time to talk. You have a very short time to make a big impression and Indirect just takes too long.

Indirect Method has, and always will be, low risk/low reward. Your intentions are not immediately clear. It's like playing a game of chess. Making the right moves at the right time. You're like a sniper refining your skills. This method relies heavily on your ability to have good conversations and to navigate them the way you want. And eventually make it feel like she is earning your interest.

The cons of Indirect is that it simply takes too long and is much harder to learn than Direct. There are a lot of tricks you have to memorize and even when you do you still have to figure things out on the fly because you can only plan ahead so much. You end up inputting a lot of work for little output. You also run a big risk of overanalyzing everything to the point of futility and self decrement. Obsessing over one worded text messages or a tiny gesture you are trying to interpret the meaning of.

The pros of Indirect are that you will have much more consistent results than the Direct guys. The same woman who a Direct guy caught on a bad day and got rejected who then wrote her off because she's not worth his time, will go on a date with an Indirect guy simply because it's a much more subtle approach. It also works much better for night game where every guy is drinking and doing Direct Method anyways. And the first rule of pickup is to "be different." You can't be different if you and every guy in the bar is doing Direct Method.

There is a disproportionate amount of Direct guys criticizing Indirect guys. It just doesn't make sense to them why someone would spend that much time working on those skills. Well hopefully this sheds some light on the matter and we can all learn to appreciate these two approaches and respect the strengths and weaknesses of each.