Where Does Material Come From?

In a roaring rampage of what seems to be excellent posts after a relatively quiet period, Harmless is back with a subject that seems to be on the minds of lots of newbies out there (judging from the sheer numbers of emails I get asking “How do you come up with your material?”).

Well, I think Harmless has some great stuff to say on the subject, so I’ll just hand it over to him…

Harmless writes:
A lot of people ask me how I make up my material, just like a lot of people ask prolific authors (like Isaac Asimov) or comedians (like Jerry Seinfeld) how they come up with their ideas. The simple answer is: “I don’t know.”

A large part of it might be “talent.” It might be something you’re born with. But I tend to believe that it is mostly a SKILL, and skills can be taught, learned and developed.

So how do you master this skill? How do you constantly come up with new material? Experience and practice.

Most authors or comedians that I know of come up with ideas constantly. Since literature (both written and aural) is essentially the study of life, the best place to get ideas is from… life experience. They are constantly surrounded by opportunities to create new material. We PUAs need to do the same thing. But how?

PUAs get their ideas from TALKING TO WOMEN. We are put in unique situations and our adaptive minds find unique solutions based on common principles. If you want to create new material constantly, you must immerse yourself in an environment that will demand your creativity: social interaction with women.

Take a look at some of the most popular routines on ASF: Sexual Predator, Attack Kitten, and so on. How do you think the author came up with them? Do you think they sat at home in front of their computer? Do you think they jumped naked out of a bathtub and ran down the street shouting “Eureka”? No. They were in set with actual girls and probably something the GIRLS said made them think of it.

In fact, the ONLY way I come up with my own material is by talking to girls. What they say, how they think, the cute things they do to attract you. You have to understand that girls only know what THEY are attracted to. So when a GIRL tries to game you, they are giving you gold material to game OTHER GIRLS. (Why do you think men work out and women dress with the latest fashions? We are trying to seduce the opposite sex based on what WE are attracted to, not what THEY are attracted to.)

I mentioned the “common principles” that material is based on. These are things like Cocky & Funny, Push/Pull, 101 theory, Neg theory, Cold Reads, Sexual Tension, etc.

I’ve found (and I teach) that the best way to learn these concepts is to learn the material that is already out there. Then through practice and calibration you start to understand how the concepts work and how the material works based on those concepts. Then, with a firm understanding of the concepts, you will adapt better to real life situations, and the material will start to FLOW.

I tend to use a lot of CHESS analogies when I talk about the game. It is easy to see the similarity. There is an opening, a middle game, and an endgame. You mate the opponent. Etc. But be careful not to take the methaphor too far. The game isn’t a contest. Chess is war, seduction is not.

But I will use chess here to explain how material works and how the concepts relate. In the opening, we have what is called the “Opening Book.” In the game, we have opinion openers, direct openers, and what not. Both are based on the same ideas: General principles backed by concrete experience. You must understand the principles, but you must also be IN FIELD testing them to create new material.

So the best way to come up with new material is to go out, talk to women, get yourself into interesting situations and TRY things. Listen to what women are saying to you. Learn other people’s material with a focus on WHY it works, then create your own.

This wasn’t a very well organized post, but I hope it helps some of you out. Feel free to ask questions here.

Just keep in mind that the bulk of material that’s out there that a lot of the best guys use is stuff they’ve gotten from WOMEN. Seriously, women are the best source of material that works best on… well, men and women (see, we’re really not that different, are we? lol). So the more women you talk to and interact with, and the more you take the time to SEE what they’re doing, the more material you’ll be able to steal/develop from them.

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