This is one of the things that continues to haunt me. Maybe I can illustrate it by telling a story about what happened this weekend. I was out at a party with a date. Also at the party was my friend, let's call him, AFC Dan. Also in attendence was this girl (we'll call her HB Desperate) who was intent on making out with someone at the party. I know this girl pretty well, she was not very attractive, so my mind was elsewhere. She is a nice girl, and I definately consider her a friend, so I was very encouraging of this behavior. She told me and my date straight-out she was looking to hook up that night. We chose a partner for her, some dude she had a crush on for a while. She kept trying to make it happen all night long, but the dude was not into her. 'Tis life.
In the meantime she got drunk, and she was telling lots of people about her big plans to make out with someone. Mind you, she was still very fixated on this one guy. One of the people she kept coming back to, was my friend AFC Dan. The next day we talked on the phone and bullshitted about the night. He asked me, "What's the deal with this girl is, HB Desperate?"
"Oh, what do you mean?"
"She kept coming up to me and telling me she wanted to make out with someone."
"Oh yeah, haha. She was trying all night but it never happened for her."
"Yeah, clearly she was into me."
Here's where the dilema begins. If a girl is drunk, and talking about how she wants to hook up, that is very likely an IOI in my book, and AFC Dan clearly recognized this not knowing what it was. I didn't witness the interaction, so I can't judge for myself, except that I know HB Desperate and know she was fixated on one guy. And she never mentioned AFC Dan the whole night. The pieces of the puzzle don't add up. I'll give AFC Dan this: it's possible that he could have worked the situation to his advantage had he tried/known what to do.
I've noticed a pattern with AFC Dan, any girl that shows him so much as common courtesy, he mistakes this as her being all over him. I can think of one specific instance where one girl was "totally into him" but unbeknonst to him, I took this girl home, and she gave no indication that she was interested in him. I can also remember another girl from my afc days who he told me was super into him, and I got waaay farther with her than he ever did. Once again, interacting with her his name would come up, and there was NOTHING to indicate she was into him. 3rd example (also from my afc days) a girl who he was so sure was going to be his next girlfriend. We all went out together one night in a big group, and this girl ended exchanging phone numbers with me and wrestling with me in the grass. Knowing what I know now, I [i]think[/i] I missed an oppurunity to make out with her, but I guess I'll never know. A few weeks later she starts a very serious relationship with AFC Dan's best friend.
There's a clear pattern here that hopefully you can follow. AFC Dan is waaay over confident. As PUA, we sometimes need to trick ourselves into thinking we're hotter shit than maybe we truly are. This personally is my biggest fear, that I'll end up like AFC Dan, thinking I'm god's gift to women when in reality, I'm far from it. In terms of results I think I do much better than he does, no question, but perhaps sometimes I play things too cautiously. I just don't want to end up being "that guy". Overall, I think through practice, I have a better grasp on reality than my friend AFC Dan, but it's hard to see yourself from the inside looking out. Usually I find with my targets that I play very aloof, waiting for the one major IOI that I'm sure will seal the deal, and it either comes or it doesn't. Maybe the whole thing is my imagination. I can't really tell. But there's got to be a better way of knowing where you stand and seperating IOIs from run of the mill friendliness.
