Got a request to review this book. You can check out Saul Tee at his site. No affiliate link. Not getting paid for this.
Also not adding my usual pictures to break up the walls of text.
Overall, I really like this book. I think it’s a good distillation of actual pickup principles before pick up got all “woo woo”. It puts contemporary RSD and London Day Game style into context. It explains why they work and don’t work. It leans back into a traditional (old school/indirect game) and talks in the language of psychology.
There are some interesting insights for veterans. It might be a bit hard for beginners – but it’s the right information. There are easier things to read, and lots of dumb videos to watch – but this is book
Going to review it section by section, but hopefully not give too much away.
Prologue – Why this is the last product you’ll ever need
This the standard stuff that all pick up artists trying to sell you something say. He’s 23 and has been in the game since he was 18 – so basically he’s only been running up on checks since ~2014.
As an old man, this is not a selling point to me. But if I was a young man, hitting on 18 year olds, this would definitely be a selling point.
He creates a fictional character Jesse, that gets “scammed” for thousands, because he went on a boot camp with a well reputed company. (Gee, I wonder who he’s talking about?)
As a piece of game aka sales copy – it’s only aight. I would have cut this section out. You’ve already bought the book, no need to keep selling. This is “over-gaming”.
Inner Game Overview
He starts the chapter with how important is “inner game”…and doesn’t really answer that question in the first section.
From my perspective, the term “inner game” as used by the community – can mean anything from self esteem, self confidence, to killer instinct, to dealing with approach anxiety. It’s a very murky term. He defines it as self esteem.
That’s not what it has meant historically in the community, but only seduction nerds really want to get deep into the etymology and changing meaning.
Optimal State – State is the idea of being in a talkative/good mood so that you can talk to girls. Mystery talked about loosening up your tongue, but the current idea of “state” comes from RSD. You need to be in state in order to run their style of game. They do emotional transference (I don’t know if that’s how they would describe it, but if you observed them like a scientist would – that’s what they are doing) – so unless you have emotions to transfer – you can’t actually do their game successfully.
Saul Tee than refutes the idea of needing state, he clarifies the “necessity of state” but also the problems of needing “state” and the problems that go with using a state based game.
And he suggests the exact opposite of being in a good/talkative/chatterbox mood. It’s actually a really good little discussion where he brings in university research.
How to Run the Interaction from Start to Finish
Belief Systems and Mindsets – These are very important. Another thing I agree with, and anyone with sense would also agree with.
That’s just not the case in the current community, nor has it been the case. There are tons of PRACTICAL SKILLZ ONLY type gurus, and most of them…let’s just say they’re attitudes speaks for themselves.
He lays out his trifecta of beliefs – the 3 things you need to believe in order to have success with women. None of them are new to the scene, but they aren’t as popular win the Tinder/Instagram era.
How to Rewire your brain with these beliefs – Something missing from most manuals and programs.
He has this interesting sentence
Your subconscious mind cannot differentiate between reality
and imagination.
I think he’s actually on to something, but he doesn’t develop it. Nor does he connect it with something he said earlier. There’s a bit of psychology at work in the text, but also psychology for you to use. It’s really brilliant as an idea on how to create a deeper change in your BEHAVIOR, but it might not change your mindset.
Becoming a Natural – He dispels the myth that you can become a natural without defining what a natural is. What everyone means when they say natural now – is not a guy that’s been a natural with women all his life – but a guy that learns how to do pick up and everything comes off naturally. He has all the technical and inner game internalized. Todd calls this advanced game.
He goes on to give examples of naturals in other fields – but he clearly has never met a natural. He leans on the competence ladder chestnut.
- Unconscious incompetence – you don’t even know that you’re fucking up
- Conscious incompetence – you know you’re fucking up
- Conscious competence – You can do shit, but only if you concentrate
- Unconscious competence – You can do shit well and not even think about it.
That’s not what a natural lady killer is like. I’ve met lots of street fighter type players – i.e. no technique, all balls. If you have not met any, you’re not going to black clubs.
But I’ve only met a handful of real naturals in my life.
Being effective with their styles would not be possible for anyone but them. Indeed, you would probably need a high speed camera to catch all of the micro-expressions, slight shifts in body language. Saul Tee doesn’t get into that. Maybe he knows some, maybe he doesn’t.
This is the closest thing i’ve seen on YouTube that gets at what being a natural looks like. In one of the videos, he talks about his childhood with his parents putting him and his siblings up on stage to perform. The natural is created in those formative years. The Dark Side naturals – like Iceberg Slim seeing his father getting played by his own mother – and that changed something deep inside of him.
https://youtu.be/oUcSHIzlBSM
I’m getting off track.
Just Be Yourself – He deals with this one in a familiar way. I like to think that this is a rebuke of Mark Manson’s bullshit, but I feel like I’m the only person in the world that hates that book.
The Morality of Pickup – I know why this is here, because moralists that are failing at getting girls by “just being themselves” – think it’s morally wrong to use any sort of technique. I am annoyed by the presence. It’s not a particularly persuasive argument.
How to Run the Night
This chapter is less practical than it sounds. It should be renamed to “what you’re actually doing when you’re picking up a girl”. As opposed to the image it paints in your mind.
He explains why old school methods don’t work. (I don’t think the problem is with the method…I digress) But he sets up the idea that when you meet a girl, what you’re really doing is putting the girl on a “Yes, Ladder” (More at the link, but a good thing to google in general)
-
- What is your big ask?
The most important first step is to determine about what your big ask is.
- Work backward
Once you have identified your big ask, work backward, thinking of two to three smaller asks.
- Plan your first yes approach
Your first yes might be even more important than your big ask. Plan your approach for your first yes as if it was just as important as your ultimate goal.
- Encourage trust
Once your target has given you your first yes — don’t let them down!
Anyone familiar with sales knows the Yes Ladder. I have never found meeting women and sales to be the same. Women lie. Women have always lied more than my clients/prospects.
Lemme rephrase – women tell you what you want to hear, if they can get what they want (sometimes it’s out of the situation, so she’ll tell you her number, so you can leave her alone!) And the real kicker – she either doesn’t think she’s lying, or if you can get her to admit it – she will say she was justified. Etc.
What is lacking in this book is a dedicated chapter on female behavior, but he does do get into it. [Note to self, add chapter(s) on female behavior]
I keep digressing – anyway, Saul Tee sees the pick up as one big “compliance ladder” (I prefer the term cooperation, but tomato tomato)
Before we proceed, I’d like to point out where some prominent
‘underground instructors’ tend to get it wrong. They
understand what compliance is – however – they act as if it’s a
fixed variable. The reality is far from it. Compliance is dynamic
and can be built. In fact, that’s all game is.
This is the key insight into his game. Saul Tee his very intelligent. That’s probably why I like this book so much. He anticipates arguments and deals with them in the text.
The newb running with this idea without thinking – “all I need to do is get compliance” – will do the natural thing. He’ll investigate if the girl is already compliant. Saul deals with the problems with that “Roissy”-esque strategy quite quickly.
In the same chapter he also deals with the pesky “Looks greater than Game” thing as well.
Here’s how he demolishes the RSD style of game
…compliance is…something.. you can..build. That’s all ‘game’…is …Approaching a girl whose initial level of compliance for you is low, and increasing it over a relatively short period of time…It’s not ‘attraction’. It’s not ‘self-amusement’. It’s not ‘momentum’. It’s not ‘freedom from outcome’. It’s not ‘unplugging from validation’. All those concepts…are not ends in themselves. Rather, they are a means with the ultimate ends of building compliance.
He then goes into his understanding of Compliance, Investment, and Buying Temperature. One of the flaws of this book, a flaw in most pick up books, he does not explicitly define buying temperature before he starts using it. There’s somewhat of a definition as the book goes on, but if you’ve never read this type of material – it’s a bit of a slog.
There’s an argument against the basic community idea of SPIKE, SPIKE, SPIKE emotions and that leads to sex. And it’s much more in line with YaReally/traditional PUA’s concept of the “emotional roller coaster”.
In a lot of ways, this book is written as an attack of the contemporary style game. The book gets considerably better on this point. He goes into nuts and bolts of how the game works on the mind of the girl. And we’re only 46 pages into it.
Investment – This is one of the better sections of the book. He really gets into the nitty gritty of what it means in a real sense, and why it is necessary – which flows back into his compliance, buying temperature and investment formula
He defines investment via examples and explanation. And then he gives a basic action plan/thought pattern/vision of what you need to get investment from the girl. – Investment creates compliance. In recent years, I’ve only heard RSD Luke mention this, and only in passing. (though I may be wrong).
Later in this section he puts together Compliance’s correlation with buying temperature and investment. He doesn’t really get nerdy and talk about High buying temperature and Low Investment or Low Buying Temperature and High Investment. I think that’s a flaw in the pedagogical aspects of the book, and it will lead to errors and frustration.
So much of his actual game – the working parts of what he’s trying to do – is explained brilliantly and supported with literature from academia and business.
Phase 1 is comparable to the Phase 1 of MM/how most guys start but with multi-dimensions instead of a linear model.
Phase 2 is similar to the trust build/comfort and rapport phase, but it still incorporates his themes of compliance, BT, and investment.
What is interesting to me about the European/Non Amerian players but when you read the European FR’s over the years (not Anglosphere guys in Europe, but actual European PUA’s) – the girls in Europe are much more revealing and emotionally honest compared to the typical party girls here. I’m not going to get anything remotely “real” from a girl at a club unless I literally take her out of that space – where the environment can’t be used as an excuse of her personality/behavior.
Phase 3 is the bounce to end game. What’s noteworthy is that he doesn’t rely on seeding the bounce. His game is a lot more Pimp Like or ‘pimp tight’. She’s so invested in him and is giving him so much compliance, that he doesn’t need to entice the girl with something at his place. She just wants to be with him.
He gives you the formula for this. It’s surprising that he’s this young and understands human nature this well.
Opening Manifesto
He explains the important and non-importance of the opener. Gives 6 types of openers.
Sub-communications – This is sort of the term we use, but he means it to be “Man to Woman”. Describing subcommunications this way is giving ground to RSD. Nobody was saying Man To Woman back in the day. Mainly because the understanding of direct and indirect had not be been fleshed out.
But he goes into sub-communications (and opposed to nonverbal communication) and “frames” a bit.
He breaks down how to sub-communicate man to woman into actionable pieces. I do wish he had combined this with his 3 phases though.
Locking In – Brilliant explanation of what governs this. Nobody talks about locking in any more.
The risk and rewards of the 6 types of openers – Risk can be high or low, and reward can be high or low. If you’ve read any of Roosh’s work, Day Bang, Bang, or his last one Game – this would be a great contrast to that.
He then explains the relationship between the opener and the rest of the conversation. I do like this section, and I feel for newbs it is one of the most important parts of the book – but as a vet, I can tell he doesn’t have much life experience because his understanding of what happens after the first words you say to someone are quite limited.
He then goes into the 6 openers, but they could easily be 600. There’s plenty of example and explanation. It’s a well done chapter.
Arouse a girl emotionally
Gonna get on my word-fetishist thing again, but AROUSE has sexual connotations. (like the world “proclivities” has connotations even if it can be used in other ways) That’s not the sort of arousal that he’s going for here – yet.
He brings in the old school idea of “value”. This is in light of his liberal use of SMV (c) Rollo throughout the text.
And there’s not much in the way of Red Pill understanding here. Take that for good or for ill. Right now it’s only people on Rollo’s blog in the field report section that have contemplated Red Pill philosophy coming from a deep bench of PUA/debauchery.
Emotional Spikes – He uses some great analogies to explain what’s happening, and then brings it to the real level. The next part gets a little academic, but it’s a useful mental model.
Negs and Teases! – It wouldn’t be PUA if this topic weren’t touched on.
Mystery envisioned the neg as a something true you notice in a 10 that’s dismissing you out of course. So you said something about her nice nails, and asked if they were real. The reason you do this is to tell the girl that you’re not impressed. This deflates her OVER INFLATED club derived ego. But then….Style said negs were “pebbles’ and the proper response to a neg would be a laugh. Let’s just say the intellectual history of negs is mixed.
The real use of a neg in 2019 is as an insult, not a backhanded compliment. So Saul Tee addresses that version and explains how to do a neg “properly”. It’s actually quite extensive.
Disqualifiers – He’s really sarging to the oldies with this one.
Prizing Frames – Essentially how to be the Prize
Takeaways – Again, making the old stuff new.
And lots verbiage on Challenges, Boundaries, Self Amusement, Role Plays, Misinterpretation, Games/Gimmicks/Cold Reads/Real Compliments.
To be continued.
