RobLaughter
01-16-2007, 12:22 AM
This post assumes you've read (or at least understand the very basic premise of) TD's "Secret Society" post. If you haven't read it, you can do so here:
http://www.bristollair.com/inner-game/nature-and-reality/secret-society.html
I came up with this idea a few weeks ago after watching a scene in The Bourne Identity where Matt Damon realizes he has a turbo-charged sense of perception. He's talking with a girl in a diner and he's explaining to her that he can tell her ANYTHING about his surroundings--how many cars are outside, where the best place to look for a gun is, how much the guy at the bar weighs and how well he thinks he can fight.
I thought to myself, "how could this perception be applied to my game?" I've always been a bit of a CIA operative wannabe--I think the shit's cool as hell. That being said, I started thinking about perception and how our awareness can frame our reality. Linking that to the Secret Society post, I realized that most women, within 10 seconds of meeting someone, will instantly size them up on a number of levels--they'll look for a ring, make sure their shoes match their outfit (belt included), notice how a guy carried himself (confidently/weakly), along with a whole number of other criteria.
When I made this connection, it blew me away how similarly intelligence operatives and women work. Sure, they're looking for different things, but the degree to which they do so is so incredible.
Since I started thinking about all this, my wing and I have been testing each other on every aspects of our lives. "How many cars did we just drive past?" "How many women were in that five set we just walked past?" "What color was that guy's shirt?"
Moreover, one's awareness can similarly be expanded to emotions and "soft" details, too.
Since we've started noticing all of this, it's made opening sets so much more simple--we were more comfortable in the venue (particularly strange venues) because it seems so much more familiar.
Not only for PU, this is an invaluable skill to hone for real-world use as well. Increasing one's awareness can help individuals better themselves by increasing one's ability to calibrate to the situation.
One argument that many may have against this idea is the fact that "alpha" males, whatever that may be, aren't really affected by their surroundings and that increasing one's awareness radius 1.) violates the three-second rule (which is nothing more than a guideline) and 2.) stales out surrounding sets. In truth, alpha males are masters of their own realities, and part of that comes from being familiar with one's surroundings. For instance, when I walk into a venue, I can scope out the entire scene within the first 10-15 seconds without even letting on that I've done so.
A good exercise to get yourself started on this would be to begin to notice more about your everyday reality. When my wing and I started doing this, we began to recognize details pertaining to places we regularly frequent that we'd never noticed before. We took the time to find out the name of the waitress that we always saw working a local restaurant we frequent. We noticed intriguing things about the venues we visited--what was the purpose of positioning things where they were.
Expanding this, we would quiz each other on sets we ran--what color was the stud in her nose? What kind of shoes was she wearing? I noticed that the more attention I paid to the details, the more freely I could talk about interesting items she'd have on.
Another by-product of this method would be to increase my appreciation for the details. I often got feedback from girls I've gamed that I'm not quite appreciative enough of them--not verbally, but it's one of those social intuitions. I've been making an effort to improve that for the past couple months with great success, and having things to appreciate certainly catalyzes that resolution.
Putting this into practice will revolutionize how you see yourself in the game, in the world, and in your own reality.
Enjoy,
Rob
http://www.bristollair.com/inner-game/nature-and-reality/secret-society.html
I came up with this idea a few weeks ago after watching a scene in The Bourne Identity where Matt Damon realizes he has a turbo-charged sense of perception. He's talking with a girl in a diner and he's explaining to her that he can tell her ANYTHING about his surroundings--how many cars are outside, where the best place to look for a gun is, how much the guy at the bar weighs and how well he thinks he can fight.
I thought to myself, "how could this perception be applied to my game?" I've always been a bit of a CIA operative wannabe--I think the shit's cool as hell. That being said, I started thinking about perception and how our awareness can frame our reality. Linking that to the Secret Society post, I realized that most women, within 10 seconds of meeting someone, will instantly size them up on a number of levels--they'll look for a ring, make sure their shoes match their outfit (belt included), notice how a guy carried himself (confidently/weakly), along with a whole number of other criteria.
When I made this connection, it blew me away how similarly intelligence operatives and women work. Sure, they're looking for different things, but the degree to which they do so is so incredible.
Since I started thinking about all this, my wing and I have been testing each other on every aspects of our lives. "How many cars did we just drive past?" "How many women were in that five set we just walked past?" "What color was that guy's shirt?"
Moreover, one's awareness can similarly be expanded to emotions and "soft" details, too.
Since we've started noticing all of this, it's made opening sets so much more simple--we were more comfortable in the venue (particularly strange venues) because it seems so much more familiar.
Not only for PU, this is an invaluable skill to hone for real-world use as well. Increasing one's awareness can help individuals better themselves by increasing one's ability to calibrate to the situation.
One argument that many may have against this idea is the fact that "alpha" males, whatever that may be, aren't really affected by their surroundings and that increasing one's awareness radius 1.) violates the three-second rule (which is nothing more than a guideline) and 2.) stales out surrounding sets. In truth, alpha males are masters of their own realities, and part of that comes from being familiar with one's surroundings. For instance, when I walk into a venue, I can scope out the entire scene within the first 10-15 seconds without even letting on that I've done so.
A good exercise to get yourself started on this would be to begin to notice more about your everyday reality. When my wing and I started doing this, we began to recognize details pertaining to places we regularly frequent that we'd never noticed before. We took the time to find out the name of the waitress that we always saw working a local restaurant we frequent. We noticed intriguing things about the venues we visited--what was the purpose of positioning things where they were.
Expanding this, we would quiz each other on sets we ran--what color was the stud in her nose? What kind of shoes was she wearing? I noticed that the more attention I paid to the details, the more freely I could talk about interesting items she'd have on.
Another by-product of this method would be to increase my appreciation for the details. I often got feedback from girls I've gamed that I'm not quite appreciative enough of them--not verbally, but it's one of those social intuitions. I've been making an effort to improve that for the past couple months with great success, and having things to appreciate certainly catalyzes that resolution.
Putting this into practice will revolutionize how you see yourself in the game, in the world, and in your own reality.
Enjoy,
Rob