Introduction: ASPIRATIONS TO BE A 'PLAYER'

"So many men try to go out and prove they're 'players' now, not nerds any more.

"They don't realize that by going out and socializing, nobody's wondering if they're a nerd. They're wondering if they're a player... or something better."

-Vincent

Many men who were unpopular during their school years don't want to be seen as nerds any more. They want to be "players". The problem is, players aren't what women want to be with. They want to be with legitimate, genuinely cool people - who aren't exerting every ounce of energy into being cool people.

Two examples of this - Zeus in Washington, D.C. and Ace of Hearts in Tokyo. You've likely never heard of either of these guys, even though they're two of the best in the "seduction community". It's because they're too busy living play-it-the-bone awesome lives to get caught up in trying to play.

I've had the pleasure and blessing to spend time with some of the greatest people in this entire world, including master pickup artists. And you know what? We don't talk about pickup more than 5% of the time. Zeus and I talked about tea and travel last we got to talk. The first time I met Ace of Hearts, he and I talked about beer, comedy, and cards.

These guys are both top-notch players. They get women, both in quantity and quality. But they don't think of themselves as players.

Vincent's hierachy goes something like this:

Nerd
Average guy
Player
Ex-player
Genuine guy

By being out in a social place, meeting people and making connections, NO ONE is wondering "Is this guy a nerd?" They're trying to figure out "Is this guy a player... or something more?" By doing playerish things, you're actually communicating you're the one of the lower ranks on the social rungs. Men who were "players when they were younger but grew out of it" are more widely liked and respected then men trying to play. And the most widely respected of all is the man who never tries to be cool, the one who transcends the "game" so to speak.

LO-TECH SOLUTIONS FOR SMART PEOPLE

"If you can get the same results with a simpler system, it means it's better technology."

-FB, 1/15/06, New York City

And so Lo-Tech was born. The desire and necessity for simple, easy-to-apply social solutions had not been made clear to me until a student in New York City had impressed this upon me. If you can get the same results in an easier, simple system - It's better technology.

"For me, there's no choice... I want to get results without complicated stuff."

-J, 1/30/06, Boston

Some of the most powerful and mesmerizing "pickup techniques" are deathly simple. Profoundly so.

Until the last two years, these techniques had largely been looked down in the seduction community. The reason is that prior to 2004, the community had been largely populated by guys who were striving not to be nerds.

Occasionally a "natural" would show up. Someone like Steve "Toecutter" Celeste. And he'd share simple, practical, highly effective things on how to get women, backed up by solid intellectual debate. People like Steve would make an impact but as they began to post less, they'd be forgotten. They didn't attract cultlike followings like many people espousing very complicated formulae.

This began to shift over two major events. The first was a series of scandals, lawsuits, and patterns of forgery being exposed in a couple of the west coast schools of seduction. It left people disenchanted and looking for something else. Some more wholistic schools were then embraced, including Natural Game which I was proud to be a part of, and other steps forward like the direct movement.

So what is Lo-Tech?

It's simple technology that's easy to understand, not glamorous on paper, and achives massive successful results out in the social arena.

HIGH-TECH'S PLACE IN THE WORLD

High-tech solutions are not only useful but necessary as well. Before I teach a single lo-tech solution, I begin by outling attraction in a scientific way. Here's the Cliff Notes:

Attraction is a result of a combination of "VAC" -

Value + Attainability + Compliance

Value: Value is value for a person's life. There is something that a person wants in an item that makes it valuable to them. In the case of an automobile, it'd be valuable as transportation, for its comfort, and also for its show of status. Sometimes value is consciously recognized, sometimes it fills a subconscious need.

Attainability: Attainability is the belief, conscious or subconscious, that you can have something. When I speak to a room of 30+ people, I get the pleasure to do something a little bit nefarious. I ask, "Who in this room has ever been seriously attracted to the idea of owning a yacht?" Usually 2-3 people will raise their hands. I get to then put them on the spot and make them blush with, "And all of you make a pretty good income, don't you?" Sheepish nods all around.

People will not become attracted to something they can't have. It's a defense mechanism. They might appreciate it or enjoy it, but they won't pine after it the way they would something they can have. While a yacht would have value for almost any man - It represents power, freedom, luxury, and fun, as well as opening up a whole set of possible adventures - Only men that have at least an outside shot of owning a yacht will become seriously attracted to the idea.

Compliance: Formerly termed "work" or "effort" in early renditions of the VAC Model of Attraction, compliance goes beyond that. It includes active work or effort put into an ordeal, but also includes accepting things that you don't necessarily like to the end of having something.

Compliance is ruled by the Cost-Worth Conception. This says that people will attribute the worth of something to how much is charged for it. While arguably a flawed way of thinking, it goes a long way to explaining human behavior. The example I use to illustrate this when instructing is a game at a carnival or an amusement park. It'll cost you $5 to $10 to win a small, stuffed tiger from a game at a carnival, as well as some luck and skill. And after you do, how thrilled will you be? You'll likely smile and put it on a shelf as a trophy.

What if that stuffed tiger had been given away for free on the street as a promotion for Frosted Flakes? Would you have taken it? Likely not. If it was forced upon you, you might've thrown it away immediately in the nearest trash can.

VALUE - WHERE IT ALL STARTS

"Prior to the workshop, I understood the concept [that I already had value] intellectually, but that didn't make it true for ME. The fact is, in my reality, I saw myself as a below-average looking guy of low value and the goal was to somehow obscure that fact from women via the use of techniques. The idea of having to actually let it be known I'm attainable so as to not intimidate girls never entered my mind."

-"The Parametric Epiphany", Parametric

"I'm calling this "The Parametric Epiphany." Nice ring to it eh? Sounds like the title of a life changing event.

"I had the privilege of being in the room and seeing Parametric's reaction to Seb and Vin's correction of this false and limiting belief. Even cooler, I observed firsthand his comfort and smoothness while chatting up that hottie latina (she was quite a looker with a megawatt smile). It definitely *wasn't* the vibe of someone who's wondering meekly "Does this girl like me?" but of a cool and confident guy."

-Zodiac

While many techniques in seduction at-large focus on the building of value, rarely if ever has value been codified and explained. Here is how we do it:

Value: In regards to meeting new women, value comes down to "value for her life". That is, something could be valuable in general but not specifically to her - In which case, it is not value for her life, and you don't have value for her.

VALUE IS ALL ABOUT PERCEPTION. An internally confident person who has a nervous tick may not appear to confident. Likewise, if you're very nervous but have all the nonverbal communication of a confident person, people will believe you to be confident.

The two kinds of value we focus on are:

Universal Value: These are characteristics that would be attractive to some degree to all* women, and not unattractive to any. These include confidence, charisma, leadership, health, and ambition. There's theoretically an infinite number of universally valuable traits, but if you're aware of the major ones then you'll cover the minor ones.

Specific Value: These are traits that would turn some women on, but others off. Two examples on opposite ends of the spectrum: A "dangerous" guy would be attractive to certain kinds of women, usually younger women who are slightly bored or rebellious. At the same time, danger would be a turnoff to most women looking to put together a stable household and settle down and have children. On the other hand, a man with lots of stability who is risk-adverse might be a turn-off to younger party girls, but would appeal more to women looking for a stable father type.

The answer is to develop (or at least develop the appearance) of as much universal value as possible. Since confidence is universally valuable, you want to sit and stand like a confident person (body language). You want to move like a confident person (appear unrushed, fluidity in motion), speak like a confident person (legatto tonality, pauses for emphasis), and make eye contact like a confident person (bridge of the nose, look "through" the other person so your perepheral vision kicks in).

All those little techniques listed in parenthesis will make you appear more confident. And perhaps the best part of all is - After you practice them enough, they become subconscious and you do them automatically. Combined with improved thought patterns (especially Focus) you actually become a more confident person.

"Have you ever noticed that there's something strange about a lot of sargers [sarge: verb, 'to attempt to pick up women']? It's as if you look at a guy, and you can just TELL that something is missing. And some of these guys even do amazing in the field. They get great reactions most of the time... but, at the same time, they NEVER seem to have a girlfriend.

Most of the guys I know are like this. And there are a few reasons why: First, it goes back to one of my cardinal rules: The best way to sarge is to have something BETTER to do than to sarge."

-Neil "Style" Strauss, Introduction to "Are you becoming a Social Robot?

Style says it well: Universal Value isn't just your precise communication skills. It's all the skills you have. One type of UV is Health: Learning "pickup" won't improve your health, but health is universally valuable.

That's scary to some people who don't want to be healthy. I understand that. And the fact is, you can get away with being poorly dressed and unhealthy if you have enough in the way of other universal and specific value. But, by making simple changes like consuming less simple carbohydrates in favor of complex carbs (switch from white to wheat breads, cut down on soda and pastries and sugar), drinking more water, and eating less deep-fried food, you'll have more energy, a better complexion, and a better physique. This does improve your "game", just like more confidence does.

The reason why? Health is universally valuable. Just like confident, charisma, humor, quick wit, leadership, decisiveness, indifference to arbitrary social norms, emotional steadfastness, intelligence, culture, worldliness, creativity, desire to reproduce, popularity, self-esteem, grooming, survival instincts, quick reflexes, and ambition. Composite traits are conditions that exist that indicate some of this universal value. "Good body language" is universally valuable, because it shows the appearance of health, confidence, and self-esteem. Power is generally the result of ambition, leadership, and decisiveness (among other things).

When Vincent and I wrote the most complete list of universal value that we could over the course of two weeks, we found that roughly half of the traits on the list can be improved through learning "pickup" and seduction skills. The other half, things like creativity, ambition, health, quick reflexes, and so on can be improved, but are done so outside of pickup contexts. Things like martial arts (or any combat sport), nutrition, travelling, and learning about art make you more valuable as a person as well.

You want as much Universal Value as you can get. It'll make you into a better, more productive, happier person - that gets better social results as well.

Specifically Valuable Traits are things that would turn one woman on, but another woman off. The trade-off is well-worth it if you cultivate the right traits - The kind of women you like will be very interested in you, the kinds of women you don't like will be less interested.

If you don't know what you want, or you want variety, then you should stick to universal value (which everyone should maximize). If you do have a strong preference, then we're talking. If you have a strong preference for a type of woman, you can cultivate traits about yourself that lend to your getting that type of woman.

Sometimes this is "like gets like". Hippy girls like hippy guys. Punker girls like punk guys. And so on through most countercultures. On the flip side, sometimes it's an opposites thing. Submissive women like dominant men.

You can also see cultural patterns. Women like different things in Barcelona than they do in Chengdu. London and Krakow are quite different. So is Mazatlan and New York City. So if you like certain ethnicities of women, speak to someone knowledgeable about the culture who has solid social skills, or talk to a type of man that's very interested in variety, who will often understand that a girl from Trinidad will react to different specifically valuable traits than a girl from Seoul.

THE POWER OF FOCUS

You may have noticed something in common with all men who get lots of women from nightclubs.

It's not that they're all good looking.

It's not that they're all wealthy.

It's not that they're all mean, or nice, or any specific behavior pattern.

They say different things.

They do different things.

But they've all got one thing in common.

"My girls would be in VIP and I'd go down to the floor and if a guy was just having fun and wasn't trying to holler, I'd let him go up and let my girls see if they liked him."

-Dan "Spirit Fingers" R.'s girlfriend, Club Promoter and Bartender

Focus is quintessential Lo-Tech. Focus is a concept that's so simple on the surface that two years ago, it would have been shunned by socially awkward people. In the last two years, there's been an evolution in this area of social science. The TNG movement combined with the publication of The Game has more cool people than ever in the seduction community, and they're demanding technique that works - especially if it should be obvious.

The fact of the matter is, cool guys who get women go out and do two things better than everyone else -

1) They have fun.
2) They socialize.

The first two focuses we prescribe are none other than Have Fun and Be Social.

The reason why -

Have you ever been driving your car, had the radio on, and been either eating or talking on your cell phone? Humans have this amazing ability to multitask, and many people continually are surprised at what people can do with the "back of our minds". After you learn concepts like Universal Value and Situational Relevance (which is simply choosing things appropriate for the current moment in conversation, including "opening") then it's time to work on those skills.

The problem becomes when your primary focus is to "do sets" or "do approaches". The reason is you'll run into the problem that every pickup artist, from Razorjack to Craig to Tyler to Vincent to everyone else has sworn is social suicide - The "Hunter Vibe".

It's when you look around a club for a "hot babe" to approach, ignoring everyone else around you. Or sit on the wall and get drunk if there aren't any hot enough girls there, jumping into action if any walk in the door.

The problem with this is that these behaviors are indicative of "low value" (the lack of, and/or opposite of universally valuable traits). These scream "player".

Cool people are cool because they're always having fun and socializing with everyone around them. So the first question you should always ask yourself is this - "Am I having fun?" If you are not, begin having fun before moving on to the next step. If you like to drink, it's okay to have a drink or two. If you like to dance, go dance. If you like to shoot pool, have a game of 8-Ball before you go do your "approaches" if you like.

If you aren't having fun and don't have any immediate solution you know will make you have fun, start doing crazy, playful things. 75% of the early part of archive is just me doing silly stuff and laying girls. I'd "open" by taking off a girl's shades and putting them on, swatting her with my umbrella, or throwing a piece of ice at her. These aren't good technique per se - but they can jump start the fun you're having.

One fun exercise we do on workshop now, that you can try with your friends, wingmen, or local lair - Have everyone write one decent opener down that they invented, and throw it in a hat. Everyone draws from the hat and uses it at least once or twice that night.

We had a student use one such opener, that was really just crazy and ridiculous. He walked up to two girls at the bar, waved his arms around, and yelled, "It's SAUSAGE TIME!!!!"

Did it open?

...

...

...

Yes.

More importantly, it got him having fun. The fact of the matter is: People avoid people that are miserable in bars and nightclubs. People want to meet others who are having a great time and being social.

As for socializing - You MUST talk to everyone. Cool guys, uncool guys, cute girls, ugly girls. Young and old. Fashionable and not. Doing so will get you in the right, talkative frame of mind and will help you have fun. For all the pragmatists out there, it also generates what Professor Cialdini calls "social proof" - It shows people liking you and having fun interacting with you. It also has added benefits. Sometimes you'll get in for free to places with cover charges, you can get in with managers to get special access like VIP, and perhaps my favorite of all - Getting in with bouncers so if anyone gets rowdy later and starts trouble with you or yours, you simply have them removed with a wave of your hand (much better to be fun and socialize with the troublemaker and turn him or her into a friend, but good to have the option!)

Those are the first two focuses we prescribe. They should take up 50-65% of your conscious thought. You should constantly be having fun and meeting as many people as you can. Handclasp people, pat guys on the back, give girls kisses on the cheeks and get them back. Meet everyone, have a blast doing so. If you're having a bad time, give yourself a liscense to be silly and get yourself feeling lighthearted again.

Secondary focus: Your secondary focus is what you think about after you've started having a good time and socializing. This is where you:

3) Make connections.
4) See if people meet your standards.

Make connections - Try to relate to people and build people up. Confident, social people make people around them better. They engage in what we call "high value attainability" - This is letting other people know they're good enough to spend time with them, and that they're liked. Find common ground.

Then see if people meet your standards, instead of the other way around. Never try to impress people. If you work on universal value in your everyday life (becoming more expressive and interesting, learning communications and speaking skills, grooming yourself better, building self-confidence, doing new and interesting things and so on and so forth) and then you're able to have a lot of fun and be very social anywhere - You've got value.

After that, you need to see if people meet your standards. Size them up, see if they'd be fun to be friends with or suitable as a potential girlfriend, and so on. The process of doing so will communicate good things about you - That you have value, to be specific. Having standards suggests you have options - Which means you've got value.

Your secondary focuses should take up 25-30% of your thought processes.

So again, the steps for successful pickup:

*) Learn and better yourself as much as possible, including building universal value as much as possible for yourself. This includes everything that can be learned from the disciplines of communications, psychology, sociology, biology, economics, marketing, and so on. Those are where most of the applied social skills from seduction come from.

After that, you'll know a lot of theory and a lot of techniques. It's good to study and learn these, but once you hit "the field" to practice and learn", you need to:

1) Have fun
2) Be social
3) Make connections
4) See if people meet your standards

1&2 are what we call "primary focus". You want to spend 50-65% of your thought process on doing this at first. After that, do 3&4, your secondary focus. You'll spend 25-30% of your mental energy here.

That leaves us with "tertiary focus" - This is where everything else goes. This is where your theory goes, this is where you analyze VAC and look for what you're missing. This is where you do compliance technique and work on logistics, among other things.

On a good day, only 5% of your thinking will have to be diverted into this. On a bad day, as much as 25% will be. But even on a logistical nightmare of a pickup, having fun, being social, making connections, and seeing if people meet your standards will consist of most of the effort you'll make.

Sebastian Drake

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