By the Book is an interesting game… well activity. It’s primarily a solo game, but there is no reason you couldn’t play it cooperatively. We did try that and it was a tad awkward because the pieces are somewhat small and the puzzles don’t really require that much collaboration. We ended up just taking turns trying to do a puzzle as most you can solve in a few minutes, so it wasn’t a big deal to take turns. But this is the story of Neil Strauss, who gets my five stars not only because he is a super likeable, sensitive and intelligent man of great understanding but also a wonderful writer.

The best put down to the whole process actually came from Tom Cruise, who Strauss interviewed because unlike a lot of the PUAs, Strauss actually had a pretty decent career, which allowed him to do celebrity interviews for places like Rolling Stone. When it comes time to leave, tell the group you lost your friends and need a ride home. This will give the woman an opportunity to be alone with you without letting her friends know she plans to sleep with you. The more interesting thing (and possibly infuriating, fascinating, or disturbing, depending on your POV) is that it's evident that these routines work. It's not mind control or a secret passcode that will get women to have sex with you, but Strauss and his PUAs really have figured out a series of approaches that can be executed in an almost algorithmic fashion, and which elicit desired responses (i.e., interest, arousal, disinhibition, etc.) The key to it is that they are playing a numbers game, which means getting over the natural aversion most people have to making countless approaches and being rebuffed the vast majority of times, and perhaps more importantly, they are looking for certain types of women and certain types of relationships. After spending a couple of years in this lifestyle, Strauss becomes weary of it because he and his posse are living like unwashed bachelors in a Hollywood mansion, with hot and cold running women, internecine catfights (male and female) over everything from relationships to money to household chores, and in the meantime, while PUAs do get laid a lot, very few of them wind up in fulfilling long-term relationships. Their original objective (getting a woman to bestow interest and affection and sex) has become an end in itself, and as Strauss describes it, the very process becomes addictive. By the Book can be played in standalone mode or as part of a campaign, but either way, Roland Banks has to be in your party. In addition to the new cards included as part of the By the Book print-and-play, you simply need one copy of the Core Set.The opener should open the group, not just the target. When talking, ignore the target for the most part and focus on the men By the Book has an age rating of 8+, but I think that’s a tad conservative. My 5-year-olds were able to play this one with no issues. Sure, they did have some issues parsing some of the more difficult challenges, but for the most part, they understood what they needed to do and were able to be successful. In fact, they’ve gotten so into it, that I can just hand it to them and it keeps them busy (and out of my hair) for quite a while. Which is an absolute win in my book. By contrast Mystery's Method claims attraction has more to do with how people feel around you than how you look. Mystery teaches his students about group think and instructs his pupils to focus on the friends of the hot girl, rather than the hot girl. People are strongly influenced by the opinion of the group. Anyone who's taken a basic organizational behavior class has read the mounds of research on this. When your target sees everyone around her acting like you are amusing and desirable, she will be more attracted to you. To quote Cruise, ”A lot of that stuff is about trying to control people and manipulate situations. Can you imagine all the effort they’re putting into that? If they took that effort and put it toward something constructive, who knows what they could accomplish.“

One of the most important things to do with an attractive woman is to demonstrate value. What makes you any different from the last twenty guys who approached her? Roland follows the rules, fair and square. This is represented by a different “regulation” ability on each of his Directive assets, which puts a restriction on how you play the game. For example, the

As a woman --I had to admit --I felt many of his techniques -(as much as I might have wanted to avoid them -already married at the time anyway), --were 'spot on'!

I think it's that last aspect that disturbs me the most. That the book implies that men and women are really all that different. I mean I read The Selfish Gene (which I think sadly is on Mystery's recommended reading list), and that is not the message I took away from that at all. Sure some biological differences might mean we have different pros and cons in 'the game', but ultimately we all want the same thing: to be loved (and to have sex/procreate). Simply finding out that you have a passion for something another person also likes and respects is enough to fire chemistry. IOI (an indicator of interest): a sign a woman gives a man that indirectly reveals she is attracted to him. E.g. leaning towards a man when he speaks, asking mundane questions to keep a conversation going, or squeezing his hand when he takes her hand in his In fact, every woman I met seemed disposable and replaceable. I was experiencing seducer's paradox: The better a seducer I became, the less I loved women. Success was no longer defined by getting laid or finding a girlfriend, but by how well I performed.”

Brand

But the most offensive blind spot is how little he seems to comment on the misogynistic nature of the whole affair. When you basically treat women as disposible targets, it's weird not to comment on how objectifying that is. Considering how much he talks about the community turning men into robots, the absence of much discussion of how it teaches them to view women feels like a lost opportunity.

Yes-Ladder: capturing her attention by asking questions that require an obvious affirmative answer. Step 9: Make Physical Connection The big problem with this thinking is that people are not static. Looks change over time. If the answer was to rely on the off chance someone somewhere thinks you are beautiful exactly the way you are ... what happens when you no longer look the way you used to? DO read this book as an anthropological study of LA and how far women and men have come from each other in some sub-cultures The Lying Game: a woman thinks of four true statements and one lie about her house or her car. Then she says them out loud one by one. You can spot the lie by looking for a variation in her eye movements. People look in different directions when they lie than when they’re telling the truth Neg the target. “It’s so cute. Your nose wiggles when you laugh.” Get her friends to notice and laugh about it

Development log

As you interact, pay attention to the people who seem most likely to shut you out-the jealous men and overprotective friends. Make them feel good about themselves as you challenge, tease, and neg the target. Strauss, Neil (January 25, 2004). "HE AIMS! HE SHOOTS! YES!!". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved October 11, 2022. Style still doesn't understand women because he has failed to identify with them. If this is a book about freeing your sexuality, it is also a book about stifling your humanity. It is about using your words to manipulate, and using sex to dominate. Without throwing a single punch, it is fundamentally violent. It claims to be about demystifying women, but really it is about stripping them of all reality and moulding them into what some men would rather they were - mindless, obedient pliable, and constantly, overtly sexual.