Thursday, February 16, 2012

Paleo, Freedom Porn, and Tim Ferriss

After my review of Frost's Freedom Twenty-Five, I got some rather interesting responses. Some people even questioned my integrity for promoting this book, but they had missed that while I did praise some parts, I was much more critical towards other sections. But because you can get a few interesting hints here and there, I did recommend it. However, as has been pointed out by a few people recently, Frost's book wasn't particularly original.

One of my friends wrote:
Frost has just taken whatever wisdom is in vogue right now (paleo diet; new male relationship philosophies; passive income) and put them in one book. Ferriss did the same. So it was "heard it all before" for me. Are you still following the paleo diet, by the way? I've done it several times before but always ended up going back to bread, for that "full" feeling after eating. Plus paleo is expensive. I didn't think you ate much meat, so was quite surprised you had moved to a meat-based diet.
I had actually missed this, but this is due to me simply not really following the media. I carefully select what I read, and I quickly dismiss anything I find suspicious. Had I known about diet fads beforehand, I would have warned you about the paleo diet. I'm doing this now, though. Well, maybe I  should make an addendum to my original review. So let me just be blunt: Paleo is a fad and unsustainable. It lead to a change in my nutrition, though. Before, I hardly ate meat. This has now changed, and I follow a rather balanced diet. Paleo itself, though, is questionable.

I was under the impression that I had more "energy", but this was merely because I wasn't getting enough proteins before. Later on, I figured out that a carb-free diet is unsustainable, and not just because it is very expensive. Of course, Frost recommends just going home to a girl and ravage her fridge, but this was probably a joke I didn't get since girls don't tend to have stacked fridges, or meat at home. Besides, who pays for their meat? It's not as if they are all awash with cash.

Here's a video for starters (found on Alek Novy's website):


References for the video can be found here, in case and pseudo-critical "hater" wants to jump at me in the comment thread.

Merely attacking the paleo diet does miss the bigger picture, though. As "Red Pill" in his excellent blog writes, there is a "paleo-game cult" going on. I have already debunked "game", and the paleo-diet has been debunked by many others as just another fad diet. Another big part of this "cult" is what I am inclined to call freedom porn.

Freedom porn is a religion mostly built by Tim Ferriss. You may have read his book "Four Hour Workweek", which promises you to give you the tools to build an automated source of income. There is no need to slave away in a 9-to-5 job. Just find a way to exploit your fellow man and do whatever you want in your spare time. If this sounds too good to be true, then it's because it is. Ferriss later on even came out telling people that it "never was about just working four hours a week". What a joker!

So, the book is not about working just four hours a week, but instead about building your own business. The examples he gives are downright ludicrous, like importing shirts from France and selling them with a big margin. Yeah, right! What Ferriss doesn't take into account is that Google AdSense is rather expensive, and given abysmally low conversion rates, you'd probably end up spending several hundred dollars on online ads before selling one item that brings in only a fraction of the cost of selling it. This is hardly a sustainable business.

But the bigger problem is that he is giving people false hope. As a result, you have then guys like Frost moving to Thailand, confessing in a book that they have no real idea how to make money, but just writing a book, in the hope that this will then generate enough money to live off. It doesn't seem to work out for him, but even if it did: How many people would be able to move to a Third World country, write about the experience, and live off it, until the story got old and nobody would buy it anymore?

Tim Ferriss tries to make you believe he's a regular shmuck like you and me. In fact, he is all but, and there are strong reasons to believe that he only got the foot in the door due to his wealthy family. Let's just recount the facts: Ferriss grew up in East Hampton. If you look it up, you'll learn that "Demographics in East Hampton are skewed by the fact that more than half the houses are owned as second homes (often from some of the wealthiest people in the country)." This sounds a lot as if Ferriss belongs to the "1%". Then he went to a school with a student/teacher ratio of 5 to 1. That's hardly like inner city Detroit. In case you are interested, St Paul's School charges about $50,000 a year.

In corporate owned media, this would be the point for someone to chime in and say that I am "envious" or "jealous", and if you've been brainwashed by right-wing ideology, you'd now say that I am a "hater." However, I only want to illustrate the background of "self-made man" Tim Ferriss. That he later on went to Princeton to get a degree in "East Asian Studies". How fitting! I don't know how familiar you are with higher education, but the general rule is that the more bullshitty a subject is, the more it merely serves as an excuse for the children of the rich to get a place there. It's not as if you can really measure performance in those fields objectively, after all.

Now you may say, "Yeah, Sleazy, I get what you are aiming at, but why do you bother?" Let me tell you something: I have attended an elite institution myself, the London School of Economics, and I have encountered the kind of guy Tim Ferriss is far too many times: Those people have an absurd sense of entitlement, and if they don't get their way the normal way, they have no qualms of cheating. They think the rules just don't apply to them. (Just look at the "elites" in banking, business, and politics! It's exactly the same mentality.) I was thus not surprised that Ferriss admitted in his book that he was, after getting a bad grade on a university paper, pestering the lecturer for hours, with the intended consequence that this guy would think really hard before giving him a bad grade ever again. How do you call this kind of behavior? Yes, it's cheating, and not "finding a loop hole."

Further legendary tales of Ferriss include him detailing how he cheated on a national championship, I think it was Chinese kickboxing. He claimed to have simply dehydrated himself thoroughly, and then he went on to just push the guys out of the ring. Tim was proud of that "loop hole". If this isn't utterly dishonest, then I wouldn't know what is. This is only the beginning, though, because Tim's first company sold snake oil: pills that were supposed to boost your brain power. I read some stories about him selling questionable supplements to bodybuilders, too. But let's not bother with the products, because there are much worse things going on behind the scenes.

In fact, when I read his "success story," it just sounded fishy. I guess I have just met too many stupid, arrogant assholes in my life who would be complete failures if they didn't have a wealthy family to chip in a few $10k here and there. My hunch was that Ferriss' claim to have raked in a ton of money with his company "BrainQuicken" doesn't quite add up. Sure, he can now tell the world that he sold the company (for an undisclosed amount) and since then invests in other companies. But isn't it far more plausible that his family sits on a few hundred million dollars if not more, and he's simply investing that money?

Here is what an insider of the supplement industry had to say about Ferriss' business, pointing out that even if Ferriss "made $40k" a month, which he doubts, it's still an entirely different question how much of that revenue turned into profit. Those are just excerpts of a discussion, but you can easily follow the link and check the sources yourself:

Bodybuilding.com has over 8,500 products. 1.2 million members with a 10% conversion rate (a gift there, should be about 2-3%) makes 120,000 purchases.

120,000 purchases /8,500 products = 14 sales for BQ off that site.

The hits to Tims's old site are easily conformable. This is the internet here people. Do the math yourself, and anyone can quickly see that BrainQUICKEN does not generate anywhere near that income.

[...]

Bodybuilder.com is pretty straightforward. Go to the site and pull the numbers off the top page. Simple math tells you he isn't making much there. Check the page views per month on BQ. Those numbers just don't add up to anywhere near 40k.

Ferriss didn't have to bother about a few $10k here and there because he surely got money from his family to help him out with. It doesn't stop here, though. Have you ever looked at the reviews of "Four Hour Work Week" on Amazon? Here, have a look! You may say, awesome, thousands of people recommend his work. This can't be bad? Well, if you dig a little bit deeper, you'll find that there is something fishy going on. I quote from a review on Amazon.co.uk:

Finally, to conclude what is quite possibly the longest review I have ever written, I would like to comment on the number of five star reviews this book has garnered over on Amazon's US website. If you have been so patient as to read all the way to the end of this review, you surely deserve to know that the author of this book has a hugely popular website and quite a devoted following, based in part on a previous bestseller he wrote: The 4-Hour Workweek. This may also explain the truly massive number of helpful votes the current "Most Helpful" review has achieved (at the time of posting, it has over 2,000 helpful votes).

In fact, having seen a number of other reviewers claim that this book gained a suspiciously high number of positive reviews rather too quickly, I decided to do a little detective work myself. By sorting the reviews from oldest first, I very easily verified that 110 reviews of this book were posted on the 14th of December 2010. Of these 110 reviews, all but 5 gave the book five stars. Of the 5 reviews that didn't give the book five stars, all but one gave it four stars. Obviously it's now equally easy for you in turn to verify all this for yourself; provided, that is, you don't mind counting to 110! Curiously, a disturbingly large number of reviews (again, almost all five star) also happened to appear on April 26 2011. I've no idea why April 26 2011 was the magic day, but if you do happen to know, then please leave a comment on this review letting me in on the secret. I'm quite curious myself! Again, all this applies to Amazon's US website, not the UK one.

In the end I can only say that I went into this with an open mind. I did actually buy the book, and I didn't throw away that money just so I could write a nasty review. I also took a very serious shot at the weight loss program contained in the book. And yes, just like anyone else on a weight loss program, of course I wanted it to work. However, I find that I cannot reconcile my own experiences with the countless rave reviews this book seems to attract.

Draw what conclusions you will.

Tim Ferriss promotes using "virtual assistants", so I wouldn't be surprised if he was ordering them to hype his books online.

This concludes my research on Tim Ferriss. If you want to know why this guy annoys me, I openly admit that it is due to an ingrained dislike of people like him: sons of the rich who believe the world has to bend to their rules, and if they hit a brick wall, aren't afraid to lie and deceive. Ferriss addresses your greed and laziness in his books, and he wants you to believe that his background and connections have nothing to do with his eventual financial success. "Four Hour Work Week" may indeed have been the first one. I hope this article sobered you up, or confirmed your suspicions.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

NSFW: Vince Kelvin Sex Tape

"Earl Grey" made a comment on my recent Vince Kelvin thread. I'll just copy and paste it here:
I don't know if this is legit or not (judging from the haircut it has to be Vince), but on another forum there is currently a Vince Kelvin sex tape floating around. Before you ask your cat to claw out your eyes, be informed that Vince first gets a BJ from a fattie, then bangs the fattie in missionary position and all this next to a passed out person.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl88b9_unauthorized-pua-guru-vince-kelvin-sextape_creation

Do not watch this immediately after eating, otherwise you might just chunder everywhere!
Yes, the guy is Vince Kelvin. Vince, let us see another one of your fabulous lays! Maybe there's even a career in gonzo porn for you.

Be prepared to cover part of the video with your hand. I did while watching it. At the same time, I was laughing hard because Vince stayed completely in character, making his strange facial expressions. A few times, you can even see him looking at the guy who is hiding in the closet and filming.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

There is a Vince Kelvin in every gamer!


Many people seemed to love my recent mockery of Vince Kelvin. However, I was more than surprised at the level of cognitive dissonance in this "communit". One of the commenters wrote:
The funny part is that there are many guys who are just as deluded as VK, but don't realize it. I was reading a post by Roosh fans, and they were mocking VK... They were saying "oh, when people mock us and our super magical game powers, they're really mocking VK" Those guys are actually just as deluded as VK, but think they're unlike him.
So, let me spell it out for the cognitive dissonance crowd: When I am mocking Vince Kelvin I am obviously mocking one particular guy. However, Vince Kelvin stands for "game" as it is commonly understood. Therefore, by mocking Vince Kelvin I make fun of everyone who does something similar.

If you dress like a clown (or just put on one or two "peacocky" items)
If you cold approach like a retard
If you "plow" when the girl shows she has absolutely no interest in you
If you linger around on the street and prey on girls
If you go to a club to "sarge HBs"
If you collect phone numbers and think they are an achievement
If you "practice approaches"
In general: if you stick to "mainstream game"

...then there is a Vince Kelvin in you!

Minimal Game: Review Roundup

Minimal Game has been out for about three months now, and it was met with an enthusiastic response. I gather reviews and comments on a special section on my website. Because I am proud of the feedback, and want all of you who haven't bought it to get the book too, I'll post some highlights.

If you've already bought Minimal Game, then let me thank you very much for your support. I really appreciate it.
It's to the point, and tells you the truth that gurus have been hiding in order to keep their students in the dark. In other words, it is the most honest book that I've read about picking-up women.
Assanova
I read your book twice through. Of all the pickup books I've read, Minimal Game is the best. Honestly I don't think there was anything I disagreed with. The book stresses a couple fundamentals that almost all other pickup books miss or barely mention.
—Jameso
Minimal Game gives you an entirely new outlook on dating. While you might have found it boring and repetitive before (maybe with Mystery Method - heck, Mystery himself said that he finds the "opening" phase boring), it will then become exciting and liberating.
—Bumblebee

As most everybody in the scene knows, Aaron Sleazy is the real deal. He's also one of the few people who have invested the tremendous amount of time and energy it takes to master game at an extremely high level. If you don't have the time or the desire to exert the same humongous effort, this book is the perfect guide to the art of seduction: A "Pareto's Principle of Pickup", or how to get 80% of the results with 20% of the work.
—Karea


Read it, follow the advice, and get on with your life! It's a fabulous book, it's completely honest, and it will help you. It sure helped me.
—Tweetie

The only alpha way to interact with women — straightforward and direct, none of this pussy-whipped timid indirect bullshit, which just encourages you to fear women!
—K

Rather than beat around the bush, he went straight for what works. The book is the right size to learn quickly from and then go practice. Many good learnings. Enjoyed reading it! —Krav

It will absolutely help me one hell of a lot in my sexlife. There's little doubt it will do just as well for you, whatever holds you back from achieving your full potential now. Price is 10€, it's worth at least 200. One read-through takes at most two hours of your time. It will save you hundreds. Minimal Game is A+++ recommended.
—Paalcopronst

One word book-review: AMAZING! It's like a good short story — there isn't anything unimportant that distracts you from the original storyline.
—600mg

I liked the book. It gave me some sense of normality, which I think a lot of people need, when doing something unusual. Written in calm and honest way that manual makes you believe it's absolutely normal to invite girls home on first date and have sex with them, and makes you believe everybody does the same. You just didn't know that. That it's normal. That women want sex a lot, and that's why in a lot of cases you don't even need to use game so much. That some girls are desperate and lonely. And if they aren't into it, probably they are not that interested in sexing you.
—Maniakka

I received the book today and I read it tonight. Minimal and no-nonsense are indeed the perfect words to describe it. Minimal Game is a bit like the first Mode One book but even more succinct. This is down and dirty, practical advice, no ramblings about high value or the difference between direct or indirect or multi-threading if you run out of things to say.
—Alastor

This lean book of a little over 100 pages is quite simply awesome. It provides a straighforward structure for attracting woman that is entirely realistic. Aaron Sleazy does claim anything ridiculous such as "any man can pull any woman" in fact he states quite blatantly that no man, not even Brad Pitt can pull any woman. In short, he does not try to sell you any bs, rather he provides the elements to form a strong foundation for attracting "the fairer sex."
—TLN

The relief and empowerment that you feel after reading Minmal Game will be more than a thousand times worth the very low 'minimal' price of the book because you'll avoid having to spend thousands of dollars on products and trainings that will be much less efficient at telling you what Aaron does in 80 some pages.
—Billy

This book aims to set your attitudes and basic convictions on dating straight, and I'll say that it succeeds in doing so. My sex life is getting better pretty fast and it's probably due to this book.
—Tormandy


Sleazy's writing style is simple, and he addresses the process from basics to simple steps of initiating interaction to progressing to relationships in this small but precise guide in a clearly understandable style stripped of all Disney elements. This book should be of immense help to guys who appreaciate the normal common sense approach to seducing women than blindly following dogmas that has a poor success rate. A big thanks to Sleazy for writing Minimal Game. Your writings in masf and elsewhere, your books and of course Minimal Game has been quite influential in my love life.
—illuzsion

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Vince Kelvin makes a Complete Fool of himself once again

One of the most popular articles on this blog is Vince Kelvin, the Joke is on You! It's easy to see why this is so, because not only does it give an insight into the immense cognitive dissonance that befalls many guys in this community, it's also hilarious to watch the video and go through my comments on selected screenshots.

Vince Kelvin wasn't really on my mind for a long time, but then I stumbled upon a post in which a short PUA claimed that Vince Kelvin was his role model. Funnily enough, that guy posted another video of Vince in field. Well, let's just have a look at it first, and then dissect it.



I really hope none of were impressed by this video. If you were, then fasten your seat belt. In the first scene we see Vince harassing a woman walking on the street. It is apparent that he didn't take my advice from last time, where I mentioned that he should avoid women who are taller than him. Just look at this:

I love how she looks down on him, thinking something along the lines of "What the f*ck is this?" This girl goes by the name of "Lexy", and we'll hear more about her later.

Vince is shadow boxing. The woman is ugly. He doesn't mind.
She stops, but only briefly. Did you notice her body language?
In the next scene, we witness Vince preying on what looks like two schoolgirls. First, he's a very good creep by standing next to a tree and blocking their way as they get closer. They have surely seen him from a mile apart. Subtlety is surely not his strong suit.
"So, there was this guy, and he was just standing there, creeping out all the girls who walked past."
 
Now Vince realizes that the girls aren't really that hot. He doesn't care.

Oh, look how eager they are to hand out their phone number. Yes, sweetie, it really is 0-4-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9.


The next interaction blew my socks off as I couldn't understand how anybody can be so blind to the reaction of a girl. First, he approaches this woman, who gives him plenty of signals that indicate that she doesn't like him at all. Women are just less confrontational than men, so they hope that by ignoring him he'll go away. But he won't.

His fabulous "opener" was something like, "This is my bench, I sleep on it every night!" But would really be so sure that he is joking if he said it to you? Maybe Vince should try the "Hey, do you have some change?"-opener as well. I hear it is rather popular in some areas. What is even worse, though, is that he is then pestering this poor woman, like by extending his hand and not figuring out that her looking down might be tantamount to her asking to be left alone:

Seriously, look at this! If you bothered a guy who gave you an indication like that, you'd risk getting punched. Vince, however, seemingly knows absolutely nothing about body language, or just common decency. He's not only embarrassing himself, but the woman too.


Pro-Tip: If a woman carries a lot of stuff, she probably doesn't want to be bothered by some random dude.



Vince Kelvin is a real trooper. No matter what a girl looks like or how (dis-)interested she may be, he takes a shot. Her body language could hardly be more negative:

Even though this girl is fat, she is not desperate enough to appreciate Vince's advances.

Honestly, what is he doing!?

Before we revisit "Lexy", who is certainly proud to be featured in this video, let's have a look at Vince Kelvin's fabulous marketing material. Frankly, at first I thought it was a parody. Look how amateurish this looks:


Yes, he wrote "begun" with a Q!

Thankfully, Vince Kelvin is not only every woman's dream, he also has a subtle sense of humor, as evinced in his statement that he will be "coming in a city near you." Got it bro? Coming, like in "cumming". Bro, did you get it? Bro? That's, like he means he's, like, going to "cum" in our city. Do you get it now, bro? He he! Got it? That smart, bro, isn't it? Isn't this really really smart?

Yo, Vince, I think you put the wrong word in quotation marks.

Vince, Vince, Vince!

But what happened to "Lexy"? Well, here's some more shots:
Oh, they're totally going to hook up. For sure.
 
No, this won't be going anywhere. Just look at the following shot. Vince harasses her to give him a hug, and it's obvious that she just wants to get away. What I found especially hilarious was that he then jumps up and kisses her on the cheek. Isn't that cute? He's just like a cute little squirrel.

Just looking at this shot, you could be forgiven for thinking that Vince attacks that poor girl.


But wait, there's more! In the comment thread on YouTube, I came across this gem:


So, to make it clear: What Vince received is called a group message. This girl simply sent this to everyone whose number she's got in the phone, and for a party girl this makes absolute sense. I don't quite understand Vince's broken English, but he seemingly wants to say that girls like that are common in his life. So, Vince, do you mean that you occasionally get random text messages that lead to nothing at all, and that you don't mind looking for some random chick at 6 a.m. (because you haven't gotten laid)?

Further, "1xSuperman" doesn't get that "Lexy" actually has rejected him, and so have all the other girls he didn't end up having sex with. Sure, Vince can fool himself by saying that "rejection doesn't existe in my frame of mind", and that "all the girls were very welcoming." I certainly didn't get the impression from this video, which was obviously cherry-picked from countless interactions (hint: why do you think there are cuts if this somehow hadn't been the case?). If anything, they give him a chance to not lose face in public. Think of the girl sitting on the parking bench. He molested her, and she looked down to give him the clear signal that he should piss off. Yet, he doesn't take the hint.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Taking Things Personally

I've got a huge backlog of articles I want to read, and don't get me started on the dozens of books that pile up either on my desk or my Kindle. However, one by one I am getting there. In the next few weeks, I'll hopefully find the time to share some of the wisdom I encounter with you.

The first bit is from the blog FounderZen.com. It's a small personal blog, but the few posts are well worth reading. Besides, Kamal, the guy behind it, is a very interesting person. Especially if you think you are getting old, then have a look at what this guy look like at 40.

In a post in which he reflects on his 40th birthday, I came across this gem:

Taking things personally
Biggest source of pain, of wasted time and effort I can think of.  Whatever one does, it matches their version of reality – and in their reality, they’re the good one.  In my mind, I’m the primary actor, everyone else the cast.  The entire Universe is filtered through me.  But the same goes for everyone.  I’m a cast member in their play.  How can I take anything personally?  Costanza was right – “It’s not you, it’s me!”

Let's read this again to let it sink in:

In my mind, I’m the primary actor, everyone else the cast.  The entire Universe is filtered through me.  But the same goes for everyone.  I’m a cast member in their play.

I found this part to be gripping.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Confession from a Convert

One of my readers left a fantastic comment on my recent post The Final Word on Indirect Game. Without further ado, here's "J" telling you about the important realizations he has made while recovering from mainstream game:
The more and more I move away from game and still hit on women, I am beginning to believe that it really is just looks and types. It is actually quite astonishing. Almost nothing I do makes any difference at all - the girls have already sized me up and made all sorts of conclusions about me based entirely on my appearance and dress. Its quite incredible. While it is true you can *fuck it up*, I really now believe that this is way over-emphasized. What you have to do to fuck it up with a girl who digs you is stuff normal guys rarely do and is extremely unlikely to ever really happen. Basically just dont be a fucking jerk and be fucking normal. Anything beyond that is just over-complication.

In a way this gives me a free, light-hearted spirit when I go clubbing and hitting on girls, as I know there is almost nothing I can do to make it happen OR fuck it up. On the other hand, this truth can be experienced as terribly oppressive because it is incredibly deterministic. It is a truth that really needs to be experienced to be fully absorbed (as I said, it is quite shocking), but it also takes quite a but of courage for most guys to really leave things *up to fate* in this manner.

I fully understand why so many guys kick and scream in their struggle to accept that their chances with women are severely limited by their genetic potential. BUT - if you learn to accept this, you become happy, calm, serene, and free spirited, and social life can become a happy round of pleasure ;)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Final Word on Indirect Game (Hopefully)

Sometimes people ask me what I think of this and that guy's “method.” If a name gets mentioned a couple of times, and I have some time to kill, I have a look. Thus, I recently spent an hour or so skimming through Roissy and Roosh’s stuff. If you want to know what I think of it: I’m appalled. It amounts to little more than old indirect game presented in a new veneer. Roissy pretends to be an intellectual, while Roosh believes he is a non-conformist. Apart from that, it’s the same old, same old.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Dirty Secret of the "Community"

Alek Novy recently made an excellent statement on my forum in a thread on the real success rate of game. I thought it should be shared with a wider audience. It should make some of you guys think.

There's this mentality in the community that it's not "real game" unless you worked your ass off. That if you used something that makes it easier - that it's like "cheating"

I've actually fucking seen guys being lambasted for getting too ripped, coz if they have a sixpack and get laid, then it's "not real game".

I've actually seen a guy who will like meet a super hot lingerie model, like his cousin sets him up with a lingerie model -> and the PUAs will be like "IT DOESN'T COUNT!"

I'm like wtf do you mean it doesn't count. Dick in hot pussy. "IT DOESNT COUNT!! she was given to him by a friend" loooool

Here's the dirty secret about community -> It's never ever been about getting laid

If the community were about getting laid, it would include discussions on how to get a career that gets you laid like... If the community were about getting laid, it would teach leverage and crutches itself...

- Fashion Photographer Method
- Club Promoter Method
- Fitness Modelling and Male Stripper Method
- Becoming a minor celebrity in a niche with a crappy band Method

The community has always hated crutches/leverage, because it never WAS about "the most efficient way to get laid". It was always about feeling like you "control and create attraction"