San Francisco magazine is running an article on the new pick-up artists in the Bay Area. These are guys who pay thousands for classes on how to dress, act and talk in order to attract women. The courses are intense, technical, and promise to turn ordinary guys into alpha male ladies men.
Lance Mason is the founder of PickUp 101. He devoted himself to the art of dating after a couple of failed relationships.
“I realized deciding who to spend my life and raise a family with is the most important decision of my life,”…. “I needed to make it the focus of my life.”
He established some guidelines. No going out on three dates in a row—that’s how you fall in love. “I recommend everyone date multiple people at once before settling down,” says Mason. “That way, you see your partners for who they really are, rather than projecting onto them.”
As the courses have become more popular, they’ve spawned competitors. Which can become awkward, such as when several competing groups of PUAs converged on Union Square simultaneously to try their skills on a small group of bewildered women.
The courses, and the students, are single-minded in their pursuit of their quarry. And yet in spite of this, the PUAs claim to understand and respect women. And some women seem to appreciate their efforts.
As Will Smith says in Hitch: “No woman wakes up saying, ‘God, I hope I don’t get swept off my feet today.’”