>It reminds me of the early 2000s "pick up artist" stuff, I had a few friends who read the books and would actively hit on women anytime we went out. It was horrible haha.

In the early 2000s only "professionals" used CAD. Now (almost) everyone with a 3d printer or a shed they want to build uses CAD. It's trickled down.

The pickup artists are on the bleeding edge of the "craft" if you can call it that. It shouldn't be surprising that the stuff they do (or at least the stuff that works) filters down.

> The pickup artists are on the bleeding edge of the "craft" if you can call it that. It shouldn't be surprising that the stuff they do (or at least the stuff that works) filters down.

I had a friend who used the "craft" and had enough success with it that he was utterly convinced he could get literally any woman to sleep with him. He failed to notice that all of his "marks" could be grouped into roughly two sets of women:

  - Those who were unaware of the game being played. They were highly insecure and not intelligent or not socially aware enough to realize they were being manipulated. 
  - Those who were aware of the game, and were playing it themselves. They were consciously looking to get laid, and they would sit in judgement of their suitors, sleeping with whoever could navigate their "shit tests" and put on an impressive enough performance. An odd sort of "game recognizes game" fencing match.

Personally I thought these performances were an embarrassing dog-and-pony show, but there's no accounting for taste.

Anyway, my point is that some of this stuff really does "work", but it's not nearly as universal as its practitioners like to believe, and the men who practice it are often being gamed themselves. Anyone who is aware of the game (even subconsciously) and not interested in playing it is immune.

> The pickup artists are on the bleeding edge of the "craft" if you can call it that.

A lot of people are picking up on how PUA types are actually annoying grifters who think bullying women is flirting, or even that some forms of PUA are actually blatantly sociopathic.

A lot of them are pretending like they have some special insight beyond the fact that they a.) are conventionally mostly attractive b.) are at least a tiny bit charismatic c.) had enough self-confidence to try doing literally anything at all.

I hate having to deal with the aftermath of endless men approaching me at random who think "being an asshole" is flirting. It's so annoying.

I have some sympathy for the dating problems of women but I have less than zero sympathy for the dating problems of any woman who is young/attractive enough to be hit on when out and about. You are the seller of what is fundamentally a scarce resource. To the other ~80% of society (i.e. basically all men as well as the large fraction of women) this just comes across as a first world problem.

>even that some forms of PUA are actually blatantly sociopathic.

It of says a lot, and none of it good, that adopting sociopath behaviors and then spray and praying them is an effective way for men to keep the big end of the sales funnel full.

>A lot of them are pretending like they have some special insight beyond the fact that they a.) are conventionally mostly attractive b.) are at least a tiny bit charismatic c.) had enough self-confidence to try doing literally anything at all.

The pool of women that will entertain the idea of sleeping with any given man is small. The pool of men that will sleep with any given women is large. Women don't need to put any effort into identifying this pool. Men do, that's what all this spray and pray PUA crap is about. Men need to identify this pool before expending any filtration effort on other criteria. And at the other end of the funnel pool of women any given man is compatible enough with is large. Women have a much smaller pool of men they're compatible enough with so they try to filter by this first, much to the chagrin of every man who has to deal with it (the same way you're annoyed by getting hit on by men you're not interested in).

Oh, and I hope you noticed the perverse incentive for both men and women to fudge the things that are under their control in order to pass the filter of people who are otherwise out of their league or incompatible...

Thank god I'm not single anymore.

I’ve done that spreadsheet thing for a year or so, around 15 years ago when I just had started using online dating sites (which where different back then, and non-algorithmic)

Well, don’t keep us in suspense. How’s the last 14 years since been?

Good. But single now by choice (and not dating). So no need for this CRM.