Nick Krauser – Daygame mastery
03-12-2014, 09:13 PM
Ok been threading a review together over the past few days:
Meta:
Daygame Mastery - this IS a textbook, complete with key definitions, aside frames, and cascading logical sequences. It's not a drudge to read, however; the writing is engaging and Krauser sets up the context you're getting into. This is a book on game reconsidered from the ground up; it's like doing deadlifts wrong for a year and now you've discovered proper form. It's subtle, you might have felt something off, but now you know what you did wrong, you feel it, and you adjust it.
Krauser has internalized red pill/manosphere tropes and presents the ideas seamlessly in a matter of fact way. If you read this having been exposed to the red pill narrative, you will see this as the latest progression in a continuing dialogue about game.
A couple of metaphors are set up to describe game that appeal to many a guy - from the economists, scientists and philosophers to the entrepreneurs, guitarists and musical aesthetes. The music metaphor resonated well; an almost philosophic treatise on how the instruments that go to make up a good song apply to the different layers of game. But he's not here to lecture about the humanities. After a few pages of context, he zooms into the nuts and bolts of what this book will entail.
From the start Krauser admits this is not a universal, truth to end all truths game treatise, but a set of heuristics drawn from real world experience. Ironically, I'm nodding my head as I turn the page. The game process is likened to setting up a story, mythology, a world view. We're players, in the sense that we're actors, characters, personalities. We need to know the "script" so we can act seamlessly on stage. This requires introspection, especially in knowing what we want, which will be important in the coming approach.
Moving on to practical matters...
There's a section on cold reads which is both hilarious and an effective tool to screen for approaches. I feel like I'm looking at a dossier brief before embarking on a secret mission. I can only imagine an Englishman like Krauser running into an American girl in London. I had to put the book down for a moment and chuckle at the NY slut archetype. It's as if Roosh and Roissy's culture critiques were turned into a cartoon blurb reflected in the American woman. I wonder if it's coincidence that this archetype was placed last...
The prep work involved includes solid advice on where to daygame. It's not about specific data sheets so much as general urban signals including train stations, time of day, and the neighborhood's status in the city.
Sprinkled throughout the book are little reminders of Avoidance Weasels. While we don't want to open up a 3 just to practice, we have to strike a balance between selectivity and the opening weasel. This is something that will take time to master. When you've introspected enough to know what characteristics truly appeals to you, you will have more awareness of solid approach opportunities. Instead of saying to yourself "she looks busy" you might begin to think "she seems like a bubbly actress." On another balance note, we get Krauser's thoughts on spending a day collecting numbers vs going for the bang (maximizing options vs wasting time). A player's dilemma in its own right.
You will experience seeming contradiction throughout the book, but this is more about fine tuning. You need to know the extremes so you can center the scale. Don't weasel your way out of approaching but have standards. have the vibe but don't care about state. It's an emotional roller coaster but you're crafting the story.
There's an entire section on dealing with approach anxiety, from the origins of Mystery's evolutionary theory to the necessity of self-acceptance.
Chapter 2 is the bread and butter of direct daygame: the street. No asking for directions, no indirect weasels, just sheer masculine presence overcoming her entire reality. Krauser meticulously covers every aspect from words to vibe to body language, and sexualization. There's a variety of openers for a variety of possible situations. There's going overboard with direct and there's other scenarios such as off the street and "mother/daughter five sets riding unicycles". Exhaustive. This is what makes daygame, daygame. If it's anything you take out of this book it's the infamous direct approach.
Text Hell (or Heaven?)
While the first half of the book is what many readers automatically think of with "day game" - that is approaching and closing in the daytime. Krauser's text intermission clocks in at a whopping 120 pages of strategy in dealing with text and long game.
This section has given me ideas on how to tweak my text interactions. There is no "one size fits all" text and is contextually dependent on the vibe leading up to the # close. I've been experimenting with these texts after a # close and think it has helped make my texting more lively, in the sense that we're making the most of the medium while setting up logistics.
The intermission of this book just might show you how to be a romance writer - as you read along you may find ideas on how to woo that girl who flew out before you could seal the deal. There's a couple dozen pages devoted to just the massive sexual pictures painted via facebook chat. Don't know how much I'll be using this but I've never seen anything like it before. Well done.
A.B.C.
The date/close portion is broken down into pre-date prep, the actual date, sex and after. For those of you familiar with Bang, this should feel familiar to the Middle/Late game chapters. Interestingly enough, Day 2 is recommended over SDL, essentially saying the SDL is flashy and fun while the day 2 is more reliable. He has a chapter at the end breaking down SDL.
Once the girl comes out with you, it's pretty standard how the game model flows. Within the 3 venue setup, there's a logical progression from re-initiating attraction, picking venues, positioning, building a real connection (not just being gamey), escalating and handling resistance (at various stages). The "Leap of Faith" is a good cheat sheet on how you're progressing through the seduction. Some points are more crucial than others; Krauser breaks this down.
This book takes you all the way to the crucial "pull the trigger point". All your hard work will be for naught if she decides to not get in the taxi. The mastery comes in where you don't flip out but instead wish her well and march off to your own world, content with your story.
Troubleshooting:
The final section is on special situations and deals mostly with difficult girls, "shit tests", and maintaining your frame. The frame crush uses the entitled American princess as an example, is absolutely hilarious and makes me want to see an in-field of Krauser and an American girl in London for the lulz. I think many guys running game in America will find this to be their default. It's really amazing how culture can shape game.
So you've been through 450 pages, now what? More punches - cold approach is not an easy way to get laid. You must put in the time, coupled with the willpower to get through the emotional ride it takes you through. You will have highs and lows, you will feel like a king and a nobody. There is no shortcut, there is no end goal. the road will be long and it won't be pretty. Some game real talk shows up at the end in regards to happiness and expectations. the red pill is bitter for a reason. This wont fix your life, this wont fill the void. if anything, your emotions and expectations may spike to unreasonable levels, and this is when you start to get good.
Day game is fun but it's also high stakes. you need the desire, the sheer lust of putting your balls on the line time and time again. it's not that you have to be an approach machine, but you have to be able to give it your all and expect the walk away at a moment's notice. And just like lifting too many weights a week, there is such a thing as overgaming. you need to balance your active game life with your passive. It's a GRIND, it's unrelenting. How many of us have beaten a video game without any retries? Like your nintendo or PC, game has an on and off switch. It's OK to take a break, to let the system cool down before going back into the jungle.
Speaking of the grind and managing emotions, Krauser's take on solo daygame is subtle but effective. You see plenty of posts about guys wanting to get into state, talk of not having enough energy, or needing to be totally positive and feel good before they can approach, but there are a few simple tricks that will get you approaching directly even if you're not at optimum "state".
Where do we go?
Reading the manosphere for too long can give game this bleak determinism of alpha/evil/dark triad aggression. It's easy to fall astray and feel betrayed when you see the world "as it is"... and it does suck. But as you read through Mastery, I get the sense that there is civic duty and humanity thrown in here. Krauser is not in it to make you into a machine. you still need a heart and soul to get good at this. don't stray too far off the deep end - remember it's about being centered. Attraction means nothing if you can't connect.
I think this is a great game book for guys who want to reconnect with themselves, a way of coming to terms with the bitterness of the red pill. It's not feel good, posi vibe nonsense, it's accepting the world as it is, knowing your place, and getting ready to take the journey and put in the work necessary to get the most out of it.
The way Krauser synthesizes game as we know it is fresh, honest and liberating. He lays out what to avoid, and what unnamed "morons" on the internet advocate [not Roosh, he gets referenced at one point]. Krauser sounds arrogant but when you see the context of his critiques, you can see how game is all about the fine tuning. This book is the collected musings of a man of action reflecting on the day in day out grind.
It would be interesting to see Krauser write more on the meta-level of game, or release an "Am I dark Triad?" twitter collection in the future.