by Guest » Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:06 pm
[quote1247972668=Pylon8]
The point is, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. The advice, "just go out there and do it," which was largely useful in the past, is no longer good. "Just go find what works for you" should not be taken to mean [i]go suffer[/i]. The hard way of cutting your own trail has worse outcomes than the easier way of adopting a method. That doesn't mean go read a guy's ebook, necessarily. Find an active, contemporary dude and do what he tells you to do. I have seen too many screw-ups get good in relatively short periods of time to think it can't happen to anyone willing to just show up. That's all it should really take: if you'll commit to 30 minutes a day, four days a week, and participate in the social skills/mens movement dialogue, you'll get good in less than three months. I've seen it happen over and over and over and over. (spoony kept a hot honduran girl's attention for about a half hour last night, btw. all I did was distract the friends.) There's a point at which you have to just jump in the cold water, but swimming isn't about jumping in cold water, if that makes sense. That's just getting over the crazy games your mind wants to play with you. The important stuff is what happens after you go say hi.
[/quote1247972668]
I think I agree with this, more or less. Because people have a tendency of getting up in their own heads, I actually wouldn't recommend reading or "studying" anything until they're comfortable having conversations with people, until once they engage with others and begin to reach plateau points besides simply approach anxiety. For example, it's really interesting, but for most of our Austin guys, once they overcame their "fear of saying 'hi,'" the next major plateaus seemed to really be kino escalation or closing. Which is great, in a way! Considering kino escalation is its own beast (yes, yes, I know you need to "weave" it into the interaction, but really...it's different than conversation), and considering closing means you went from Point A to Point C in the conversation, that's pretty fantastic. I know that a lack of a number close or whatever is indicative of a mistake a few steps back, but the thing is, you've worked on everything in the middle. Now it's a matter of nuance, of fine-tuning, of figuring out what your REAL sticking points are. But once you know how your conversations tend to go, that's a good time to start looking for a method, practicing it, and refining it.
But how do you get to the point described above? That's where Pylon is dead-on. You do it through practicing WITH OTHERS. I would say it follows the same basic pattern: When you're first starting, talk to as many community people as possible, and find the ones you feel comfortable with. The ones you get along with and actually like. You're opening up a potentially vulnerable side of yourself, and you want to go out with someone who you feel comfortable showing that to. So the first step is screening for that person by meeting lots of members, the second step is choosing that person and going out with them and learning what you can from them. The important thing is selecting someone who actually knows a little bit, so that there's actually something to learn from them. You don't want to go out with someone who's just as nervous as you and you end up standing on the sidelines together the whole night. So once you find that person, do the 30 min/day, 4 days/wk, for 1 month thing. Then you'll have a better sense of where you stand, you'll have gotten more practice, you'll have a little more perspective, etc. You'll have NEW sticking points. Then, rinse and repeat.
[quote1247972668=Pylon8]
For the guys who have been around longer, I have a challenge. In a year, get twice as good as you are now. Don't think it's possible? Is Dallas just not the kind of city where people learn and get better? That's fine, but if a new guy told you that, you'd tell him to take a ride. I'm not being very nuanced here, and maybe that's unfair, but start with this: What is one thing that you want to get better at? Go get twice as good at that in a month. You're not going to get better at it by going to Addison all the time :) I wouldn't say that out loud, except for the fact that I think everyone agrees with me. Addison has taught you everything it has to teach you, and it's not the hot-chick mine that people say it once was. Dallas is a flighty town that has moved on, and you should, too. Burn it. Burn it, and don't look back.[/quote1247972668]
I'm not sure how much I agree with this, considering the definition of "good" is so subjective, and everyone's success tends to be fairly scattered (in general). But I think if you set up a routine for yourself (e.g., "I'll go out four times a week for 6 months"), you will see marked progress. It will be substantial, and you will have a lot more experience/successes/closes/whatever the yay you want to call it under your belt. So I guess I do agree with the "What is one thing that you want to get better at? Go get twice as good at that in a month" part, because that's a little more specific. :)
As for the Addison/Dallas/move on part, I disagree. People are people are people. Some scenes have more of the "types" of people you want to converse with or develop relationships with, and that's fine if you target those venues/areas. But there is something to be said for talking to people you don't necessarily want to sleep with and for developing your social skill set in as vast a way as possible. Because there will come a time when you DO want to start a relationship with a girl, and you need to pull out a particular tool from your toolbox that you thought you might never need.
But, when Pylon says he's not being nuanced, I think he is. I don't think he's blatantly saying to "Burn Dallas and move on to bigger and better things." I think he's saying EVERYWHERE is flighty, because people are constantly evolving, and you need to burn your preconceptions/misconceptions and simply get out there, wherever "there" may be, out of your comfort zone, and start methodically working on improving yourself and your game. Or maybe that's not what he's saying, but it's what I'm saying. :)