[dads]

Maybe not thread worthy, but I thought it was pretty interesting non-manosphere game analysis on Leo DiCaprio. It started on the Bill Simmons B.S. Report podcast (always a great listen) when him and Simmons brought up his DiCaprio-Titanic theory:

(skip to 1:13:00)

The Bill Simmons answered a question in his weekly mailbag, and asked Malcolm Gladwell about it:

Quote:

Q: So I’m listening to you and Klosterman talk about Leo and how he’s on his third generation of supermodels because of the Titanic trump card … I’m sure that’s part of it, but at what point do we have to start throwing out Gladwell’s 10,000 hours outlier theory? The man has actively been pursuing and dating super models without interruption for 20 years. At this point, Leonardo Dicaprio probably feels more comfortable talking to a Victoria’s secret model than I would talking to a grocery store clerk. Did you see he convinced no less than 20 supermodels to leave the club with him last month?? point being, there’s a good chance Leo’s spent more hours talking to and picking up supermodels than Dirk Nowitzki has spent shooting jump shots.
—Leo, Portland

BS: Here’s what Gladwell had to say …

“I think Leo’s situation is not dissimilar to the Jamaican-sprinting question. Jamaica, a country one-tenth the size of Cuba, has now produced the world’s best sprinters for the past generation in numbers that defy all logic. Here, for example, are the results of the high school boys’ 100-meter finals from last year’s Jamaican Boys & Girls Athletics Championships:


1Zharnel Hughes
Kingston College
10.12R
2Jevaughn Minzie
Bog Walk High
10.16
3Raheem Robinson
Wolmer’s High
10.37
4Martin Manley
St. Jago High
10.38
5Waseem Williams
Jamaica College
10.40
6Tyler Mason
Jamaica College
10.48
7Javoy Tucker
Wolmer’s High
10.64
8Odane Bernard
Donald Quarrie High
10.75

“For those who are not track fans, I should point out that this final is probably faster than the ADULT national finals in virtually every country in the world except the United States. So why are the Jamaicans so good? There are many reasons, but the simplest is that the effect of peers on high performance is REALLY strong. In Jamaica, EVERYONE sprints. There are 20 heats in the 100-meter regional championships. And because everyone sprints, and the average quality of sprinting is so high, everyone’s expectations are raised accordingly. The psychological ceiling on elite performance if you are a high school sprinter in Kingston is, like, a foot higher than if you are a high school sprinter in America. Leo is the Jamaican sprinter of ladies’ men. The average Don Juan gets to practice his A-game maybe once a month. Leo can’t EVER take a night off. He’s been competing with the very best for 20 years. I don’t know if he remembers what it’s like not to be charming.”

(Did that settle it?)

Interesting (if not rehashed and watered down) take on the stuff, and I enjoyed Gladwell's analogy to Jamaican sprinters. But something I've never really heard in relation to Leo's game is this point:

Quote:

The average Don Juan gets to practice his A-game maybe once a month. Leo can’t EVER take a night off. He’s been competing with the very best for 20 years. I don’t know if he remembers what it’s like not to be charming.

I feel aware that it's an interesting point, but I'm not sure why. What do you guys think?

[Days of Broken Arrows]

This is a bunch of pseudo-intellectual mental masturbation.

If any of us had starred in several of the biggest movies of all time and kept ourselves looking remotely decent, we'd score with supermodels too. Being famous = pussy magnet.

Example: the first band I ever interviewed was the Ramones. It was when I was in college. They were past their prime but not yet the legends they would become after Green Day and company made them cool. Not the best looking group in the world either and the lead singer, Joey, came off like he was completely out to lunch. Johnny did all the talking.

And yet...backstage the amount of high-quality women vying for their attention was unbelievable. Maybe not supermodels, but my point is all these guys had to do was show up. And they had fraction of Leo's fame (not to mention wealth).

As for Gladwell, I think his books are popular because they sell us an egalitarian idea of success: "Hey, if everyone just worked hard enough we can be anything we want!" But I think it's wishful thinking.

This idea is flawed because it takes the genetic component of talent out of the equation. There are some things some of us will never be able to do well, even with 10,000K hours of practice. He goes on about the Beatles honing their craft in Germany, for example, but doesn't mention that their songwriting talent was in evidence long before that, when they were teenagers.

I don't think Leo had to "practice" with supermodels. I think he could behave like Charlie Sheen on a bad night and still be swarmed for all eternity with better-looking women than most of us will ever see in person.

[Pacesetter20]

Bill Simmons is dead to me after he recently had Leah Dunham on his podcast, but then again there has always been beta, white-knight undertones in his writing, so I guess I shouldn't really have been surprised.

[TheSlayer]

(01-16-2015 11:53 PM)Pacesetter20 Wrote:  

Bill Simmons is dead to me after he recently had Leah Dunham on his podcast, but then again there has always been beta, white-knight undertones in his writing, so I guess I shouldn't really have been surprised.

Yup. I listen to almost all of his podcasts but I wasn't going to give him the "click/hit" for that episode. I believe he's had her before too once, didn't listen to that either.

[dads]

I think you have to look at the context of what he is doing and who his audience is. Bill is my favorite sportswriter. He might be one of my favorite writers. He does speak a lot to how much he hates the mob culture of social media and SJWSs.

But of course, I also really like "Girls", so what do I know.

[WestIndianArchie]

(01-16-2015 11:48 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

Example: the first band I ever interviewed was the Ramones. It was when I was in college. They were past their prime but not yet the legends they would become after Green Day and company made them cool. Not the best looking group in the world either and the lead singer, Joey, came off like he was completely out to lunch. Johnny did all the talking.

And yet...backstage the amount of high-quality women vying for their attention was unbelievable. Maybe not supermodels, but my point is all these guys had to do was show up. And they had fraction of Leo's fame (not to mention wealth).

Maybe your view of the Ramones is different than mine, but they've pretty much been cool since they came out. Unlike say the NY Dolls.

WIA

[Enigma]

(01-16-2015 11:48 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

If any of us had starred in several of the biggest movies of all time and kept ourselves looking remotely decent, we'd score with supermodels too. Being famous = pussy magnet.

I think this is downplaying his success quite a bit.

If all it took is being famous and good looking to do what Leo does, you'd see guys like Cruise, Downey, Smith, Deniro, etc. always hanging out with half a dozen supermodels at a time too.

Hell, in my experience, the average girl finds Johnny Depp way more attractive than Leo. That guy is like a kilo of catnip to pussy.

Instead you've got Orlando Bloom fighting guys over his whore of a wife, Owen Wilson trying to kill himself over broads, etc. Depp's got a bad one now, but his track record is pretty lackluster overall.

Obviously fame is a huge factor and most guys could pull models at that level, but that doesn't mean they'd almost exclusively date models for a couple decades, fuck their way through half the Victoria's Secret catalogue, or pull multiple models at a time on a consistent basis. It's not like these girls don't have other rich and famous men hitting on them.

It takes a special kind of personality for that, just like it takes a special personality to build such a remarkable filmography.