Right on. To summarize: PUAs succeed because they have something to protect (or rather conquer). The same reason Eliezer succeeded in inventing something new in the Sequences—he had a big external goal (AI) that was more important than intellectual pleasure. (Incidentally, the same goal motivated many people to create many wonderful things, e.g. Lisp.) Here’s a quote from his post that could just as well have come from a creepy lonely man setting out to invent PUA:
...beginning with a desperate need to succeed. No one masters the Way until more than their life is at stake. More than their comfort, more even than their pride.
hmmm… so do you think we would need a common big external goal? Could it work if people just import whatever goals they’re working with anyway, and see this as purely instrumental training?
Goal setting/discovery seems like it could even be a possible topic/subtopic of study. I don’t imagine we could find a single unifying goal like the PUAs have.
For example mine’s easy: I work in a bureaucracy, and I work on stuff I think is important to do right. Being in a position to ensure things get done right takes more social smarts than I currently have. Ergo, I need to get better at this shit, which does not at all come naturally to me.
I imagine most people have something like this, but they might be too idiosyncratic to focus the necessary collective efforts. Something like Existential (or at least Big- Ass) Risk Mitigation maybe?
Last winter I became very ill. Felt pain all the time, couldn’t eat or sleep, had trouble even drinking water through a straw. It took me four days in that state to overcome my aversion to doctors and seek good medical help. If it hadn’t been so extreme, I’d have simply waited it out like I do everytime I get a cold or something.
There are many guys who don’t get any female attention, suffer greatly from it (comparable to my illness I’d say), know about PUA, but never give it a try. In fact most unpopular guys are like that. Some of them are more willing to kill themselves than make an effort.
Are your work-related desires comparable in strength?
Right on. To summarize: PUAs succeed because they have something to protect (or rather conquer). The same reason Eliezer succeeded in inventing something new in the Sequences—he had a big external goal (AI) that was more important than intellectual pleasure. (Incidentally, the same goal motivated many people to create many wonderful things, e.g. Lisp.) Here’s a quote from his post that could just as well have come from a creepy lonely man setting out to invent PUA:
hmmm… so do you think we would need a common big external goal? Could it work if people just import whatever goals they’re working with anyway, and see this as purely instrumental training?
Goal setting/discovery seems like it could even be a possible topic/subtopic of study. I don’t imagine we could find a single unifying goal like the PUAs have.
For example mine’s easy: I work in a bureaucracy, and I work on stuff I think is important to do right. Being in a position to ensure things get done right takes more social smarts than I currently have. Ergo, I need to get better at this shit, which does not at all come naturally to me.
I imagine most people have something like this, but they might be too idiosyncratic to focus the necessary collective efforts. Something like Existential (or at least Big- Ass) Risk Mitigation maybe?
Ordinary goals aren’t strong enough.
Last winter I became very ill. Felt pain all the time, couldn’t eat or sleep, had trouble even drinking water through a straw. It took me four days in that state to overcome my aversion to doctors and seek good medical help. If it hadn’t been so extreme, I’d have simply waited it out like I do everytime I get a cold or something.
There are many guys who don’t get any female attention, suffer greatly from it (comparable to my illness I’d say), know about PUA, but never give it a try. In fact most unpopular guys are like that. Some of them are more willing to kill themselves than make an effort.
Are your work-related desires comparable in strength?
Yup. I’m worried about this, and I’d like to hear any thoughts on how we could get around it.