Why the 90/10 Rule is Nonsense

It’s my lucky day because in addition to bashing BradP one more time, I also get to show you why one of the main teachings of the mainstream seduction industry is completely bogus. In one of his recent marketing emails, BradP defines the 90/10 rule as:

90/10 rule means that you are talking 90% of the time and the girl is talking 10% of the time. If that ratio is occurring early on in your approaches you are doing fine.

I am not specifically targeting BradP now, because this “rule” is one of the main dogmas of Mystery who is one of the founding fathers of the seduction industry. Instead of looking for some algorithm, let’s use some good old common sense and answer me this question: How large would the contribution of a girl who is really interested in you be? Probably at least 50%, and if you have spoken to a few girls in your life, then you also know that it’s easily the case that they just won’t stop talking, which means that you could well be restricted to 10% of the time, not the other way round.

But let’s see how a “pick-up guru” like BradP argues why this nonsensical rule is valid:

If she is talking less than 10% of the time, that’s not good cause it’s like you’re lecturing her. But girls tend to not talk at all sometimes, so you have to ask a question or get her to agree with something just to get her to hold up her 10%.

Let me point something out here: if you are speaking 90% of the time, you are already lecturing her, and even if she gets to speak a quarter of the time, you are still completely dominating the conversation, which is not good in this context.

So, why would she shut up and have to be tricked into contributing her “10%” by trying to make her ask questions and the like?

One reason is of course that she is just not interested in you, but because there is no one else to talk to (yet), she let’s you ramble on because she likes getting male attention. That she is merely using the guy and will quickly drop him once a more attractive one is around is of course implied. On the other hand, some girls are genuinely shy, but even in this case they will want to contribute something. Given that the “90/10” rule is associated with “indirect game”, let’s do some math here:

Speaking 90 % of the time means you talking 9 out of 10 minutes. Viewed on an hourly scale, it means that she has only 6 minutes to contribute something. I think this is a travesty, but the “PUA” who is reeling off his scripted stories probably disagrees. Well, it does’t seem to bother him that he barely ever gets laid either.

If you don’t know about this rule, you might sometimes be feeling like you’re not doing well because the girl isn’t talking much. But that’s not the case.

Yes, it is the case! If she isn’t talking much then she is not interested. Is this so difficult to understand?

How do you know if you’re doing well? She’s still standing there listening. If she doesn’t walk away, chances are you’re doing fine. That is a USEFUL assumption, even if it’s not always true, because it will make you project confidence.

One problem emerges, though: How does our little aspiring “pick-up artist” know that the girl isn’t merely just enduring him? Maybe he just doesn’t care about such trifles. The fact that a guy who waffles on and on doesn’t portray confidence doesn’t seem to make him want to shut up either.

Jeez..... BradP's "Updated Phone Game Procedures"

My next book is coming along nicely. Since the text ins currently in the hands of my editor, I thought I'd continue with bashing BradP. But don't worry, you will learn plenty from this post even if you couldn't care less about this character.

In his recent newsletter, BradP gave his opinion on the current state of text game. So, check this out:

IMO the current best move is this-
Have a 20-45 minute text conversation, texting back and forth every 30 seconds or so. Along the way you'll send and receive dozens of texts. It's the new way to get to know each other. Then at the end you go for the day 2.

BradP, you are kidding, right? I really hope you do.

Listen, if she is willing to text with you for "20-45 minutes", then you probably don't know what a green light. Your first text should have been, "Hey, wanna meet up tonight at X?" anyway. What "guru" BradP recommends is a colossal waste of time, and what is worse is that by prolonging the text conversation like this, you are nothing but increasing your chances to lose the girl's interest. So, what do you think of "guru" advice of that caliber? (Maybe he's misleading you on purpose, hoping that after your "text game" doesn't work out, you fork out two grand for a "boot camp".)

Not only will the girl wonder why you are such a fucking pussy and don't dare to just ask her to meet up. Also, the need to write dozens of not completely dull text messages might make girls uncomfortable. In fact, it probably makes you feel uncomfortable too, and there are only so many innuendoes you can come up with before you risk repeating yourself. In fact, many girls are so insecure that they feel being put on the spot after receiving a "witty" text message. But Jane Dull just wants to meet up with you and fuck. Yet, with your barrage of text messages, you only end up confusing her.

Lastly, texting a lot sends out a rather bad signal: namely that you have nothing else to do. And this is indeed true. My phone is on mute basically all day, and I hardly ever check it, because I've got a lot on my plate. Once you leave college behind, this will be the norm for you as well because your job and commuting will occupy most of your time. Then you will think twice if you text some random broad for an hour or just read a chapter in a book you find interesting.

More from BradP:

Also, phone game seems to be DEAD, and the 30 minute text marathon is IN!!

Have you run a marathon yet, BradP?

But there are exceptions. I sat on the phone with a chick for 90 minutes last night. But I had done about 6-7 texts with her during the day.

Oh, really? What about telling her to come over instead?

What was most startling, though, was that there is some truth in the misinformation he provides in his summary:

Also, I think a lot of it is coming down to the following factors- 

1- whether you made a strong impression and got enough attraction when you met her 

2- whether she has a bunch of other dudes already in her rotation 

If you didnt have attraction and she's dating 5 dudes, no technique will work. If she's currently got an opening, and you hit it out of the park on the initial approach, anything will work.

Points of interest are:

1) You don't "get attraction". Either you are attractive to her or not. I know that companies like Love Systems tell otherwise ("you can generate attraction"), but they would be out of business if they dropped the bullshit.

2) In the second statement, BradP insinuates that all girls are sluts and fuck ten guys in parallel. This is not quite true either.

3) I wonder whether BradP thinks his potential customers are complete idiots. In the end, he states that "anything will work" if she is available and finds you attractive. But why on earth would you then waste your time with half an hour of text messages!? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

Rumor has it that BradP wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the pack at college, and what I read of him only confirms this. He's certainly especially weak when it comes to logical thinking.

Captain Picard agrees too, by the way:

BradP wants you to void the warranty of your iPhone!

Oh well, oh well! Technology isn't everybody's strong suit, and being forwarded an email with the title "How to Chick-Proof your Iphone" surely raised my suspicion. In it, BradP, or some marketing drone that works for him, actually recommends a procedure for "proofing" your iPhone that will void your warranty. Isn't that handy?

Before I go on chastising BradP for making you void the warranty on your iPhone, let's have a laugh at this quote:

BTW, this article could be good for women too. Lots of boyfriends are insecure and stalker-ish. So here's an easy guide to how to secure your iPhone from anyone who wants to control you, including boyfriends, girlfriends, fuck-buddies, parents, roommates, and any other weirdos that you may have in your life.

So, BradP, do you really say that the family and anybody the reader of your marketing email has sex with is a weirdo? The wording certainly suggests so.

But enough of that, and onto hacking our iPhones:

Here's the process, abbreviated:

1- Jailbreak your iPhone
2- Get BiteSMS from Cydia
3- Get LockInfo from Cydia
4- Set a password in the general settings of your iPhone

Even though jailbreaking is relatively common, it is not without drawbacks. Apple isn't especially fond of it either. To quote from their support document "Unauthorized modification of iOS has been a major source of instability, disruption of services, and other issues".

Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks the iOS. It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iOS is a violation of the iPhone end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software.

But, all is cool, because who cares if Apple tells you to GFY once your iPhone stops working due to certain hacks. After all, at least now nobody can snoop our your phone. Not even yourself.

Nice one, BradP!

I'm looking forward to your other emails, BradP, and I have a hunch that they won't disappoint me.

BradP loves him some money!

I'm currently preparing two articles on BradP, but as a warmup, here's something I don't know whether I should laugh or cry about: His latest offering called "Millionaire Makeover". The price is a modest $100k. Surely, that's not exactly chump change. The reader who sent me that info commented, "$100k...what a joke!!", and I am sure if you have a sane bone left in your body, you'll agree.

But, hey, for that amount of money you'll receive some great stuff, like:

Lifestyle Streamlining
Positivity training

Wow. Where do I sign up for that?

The kicker was the description:

When you complete this process, you can expect to be fully transformed. Your game, your appearance, your presence, and your lifestyle will be drawing women in at all times. Brad will also make sure that you are attracting a specific kind of woman, the kind of woman you have always wanted. You will learn how to leverage your wealth effectively, without allowing women into your life who are self-interested, manipulative, or negative.

But let's be honest here, if you are wealthy, then wealth will always be a factor for the women you are with, no matter what they say. Golddiggers will try to reel you in before they make demands, or do you honestly think they approach you with, "Sweety, do you want to by me an apartment in the Latin Quarter in Paris?"

If you want to leverage that amount of money effectively, you are probably better off spending two weeks in LA or Vegas and booking a different porn star every day. One hour with the star of your choice sets you back $1,000 to $1,500 and, as I have been told, you can get them cheaper if you make the effort of emailing them privately.

Now, I am not a big advocate of paying for sex, but if you are so desperate, and wealthy enough, to seriously consider shelling out $100k for a "boot camp" that doesn't even guarantee sex, then there are better options. Of course, there is always the hope that the person organizing the boot camp will shell out a few hundred dollars and plant a hooker in the club, to make sure the rich client gets something for his money in return.

However, in real life, a rich guy should have no problem having women throwing themselves at them. It's all a matter of comparative wealth anyway. The same way Joe Average and his brother Jim Ugly can get laid like rockstars in Cuba, Costa Rica, Thailand, or the Philippines, a wealthy guy will have no problems getting laid in the more exclusive places on this planet. As long as he flaunts a bit of his money, he'll be golden. Heck, I have seen plenty of not exactly handsome older men with beautiful women on their sides, and the fact that those dudes were driving Lamborghini Gallardos or owning yachts surely had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

Student of BradP dates widespread bikini girl image!

Whenever you think that the people in the seduction industry have hit a new low, such as BradP with his "two IT guys", it doesn't take much until you realize that this was just the beginning. So, to use one of RSD's Tyler Durden's favourite metaphors, "Let's venture deeper down the rabbit hole."

While it was fishy enough that BradP used an image that was spread on other websites, as my first source pointed out, another reader was quick to direct me to Google Images, a picture search engine. He was kind enough to create a permanent link as well. Now, please take some minutes and click on that link. The results will really blow your mind!

Hold your breath --- because we get 720 results for that image!


For a nice visual representation of it, please check this gallery. It's so absurd, I had to take a screen shot of it:

But don't worry, you have seen nothing yet. You can in fact scroll through pages full of the exact same image (apart from differences in resolution). As that reader pointed out, "She's quite a popular girlfriend!" Yes, indeed.

The very first entries Google records date back to 2007. Here's, for instance, a thread on the Rotten Tomatoes forum from August 2007, where a guy claims that the image was "Some random girl someone randomly posted on eBaums." And in 2011 some random PUA who claims to be the "#1 rated PUA in the world" pulls some shady marketing out of his a** and uses that very same picture! Someone clearly thinks his potential customers are utter morons.

Lastly, for the mathematically challenged among the PUAs, I want to point out that 2011 minus 2007 equals f*cking four years, and now tell me who in their right mind would send you a four year old picture of their girl?

The only question I have for BradP, though, is whether the girl was a "surgeon" back then already, or whether she has finished her training after that picture was taken. :P

BradP, I'm onto you!

During the last year or so, BradP managed to rise to the position of one of my favourite bullshitters in the pickup industry. This guy loves to spout out how "authentic" he is, and how much "street cred" he has. Hell, he is as authentic as a fake leather jacket.

I'll reserve some longer future posts on his nonsensical back story and his shady marketing practices, but for today, a nice short post shall suffice. While I am not a big fan of anybody in the industry, I considered BradP to be comparatively "solid", which was why I didn't bother posting anything about him. In comparison to guys like Vin DiCarlo he is, after all, just a choirboy. But he certainly ventured off into the shady side of the Internet.

Recently, I got contacted by a guy who sent me some info on BradP's most recent marketing stunt. I'll let the guy speak for himself:

I hope you post this on your blog. I can't believe how shitty this seduction industry is. In an effort to continue to expose their fraud, this time, lets talk about BradP.

Recently he posted on his website, a product called Secrets of Inner Game. In that he says he started coaching 2 guys with IT jobs, one of whom remained there, one of whom went on to start his own company and become a millionaire. The millionaire guy is dating hot chicks and magically this is because of his "rock-solid inner game" and not because he is a millionaire. And somehow, all of this is because of him and his "secrets of inner game".

But hey, if this wasn't bad enough, he has the posted a screenshot of this guy emailing him a picture of this girl. I have attached a screenshot of his webpage. I have also attached the screenshot of a picture from another webpage. Somehow the two girls look suspiciously similar

Literally, this BradP guy is supposed to be THE best in the community. I don't even want to think what others are like.

Well, we all know how the others are like.

Also, it's obvious that if you roll in dough, you'll have plenty of girls. So, I won't bother to discuss this one issue. I've done so many times, especially in my free ebook "Debunking the Seduction Community".

But before I'll show you the incriminating evidence, let's talk about BradP's bullshit marketing for a second. In fact, it is probably a sign of his delusions of grandeur to actually mock his already paying customers. He must think that those guys are utter morons.

For one, even if it was true that there were two guys, and one became a millionaire (over night or what?), and the other didn't, it's not as if this was in any way scientific because there is too little that is known about the guys, besides the fact that they both "work in IT". For all we know, one could have been the CTO of Hewlett-Packard, and the other a data-entry clerk at RadioShack.

In either case, the "successful" guy just sounds like an insecure buffoon with a constant need to brag. Just have a look at his alleged email:

Frankly, can you even imagine anyone sending something like this? Well, I could, if my task was to come up with a text that appeals to the basic human emotion of "greed".

Also, IF the whole story is actually true, which I doubt it is, then the additional problem is that picking your evidence after the fact is nothing but misleading. This is actually a much bigger problem that is not so uncommon in the world of Big Pharma, and usually the source of much controversy, and sometimes it leads to settlements that are worth billions of dollars.

Just compare those two scenarios:

1) "I coach 100 guys and if just one of them reaches any kind of success, for whichever reason, I'll feature him prominently in my marketing materials".

2) "I have this new drug here and administer it to 100 people. Of course, in the study I have to publish, I'll only discuss the group of the people in which there was a positive effect."

This phenomenon is broadly called Selection Bias, but if you read the Wikipedia article, also check out the "related issues" section as it is relevant, too.

However, BradP's oh-so superior intellect apparently didn't make him realize that his marketing copy really bites him in the ass. After all, he claims to have worked with the same two guys --- and one succeeded while the other didn't. Yet, he claims responsibility only for the allegedly great success of one guy, but not for the failure of the other. Isn't this just a little bit odd?

Here's a quote from his website:

Now let me tell you about the second guy...

This story isn't as pretty.

The second guy is working at the exact same entry-level job he was five years ago. He's still bitter about women. He can't really get girls attracted to him, and if he gets lucky... she never sticks around. He rarely gets a date. He wouldn't even tell me how long it had been since he last had sex... probably because he was embarassed it had been so long. He still goes out to bars and clubs trying to meet women, but he always goes home alone. He feels like a total loser.

Do you know what the difference is between these two guys?

The Successful Guy Has ROCK-SOLID Inner Game

Hahaha!

For the logically inclined among my readers: there are only two plausible options in this fantasy setting BradP describes:

1) Either he has coached both of them
2) Or he has coached none of them

...because why else would you even bother to compare them if your business is selling bullshit, err, pickup coaching.

In the first scenario, Brad did coach those two guys, if they even exist, and even though one may have reached great financial (and thus romantic) success, the other, the unsuccessful one, has also spent tons of cash on BradP's teaching. Yet, he still gets nowhere. If you ask me, that's a fairly moronic way of admitting that your coaching, or pickup coaching in general, doesn't really work. Nice one, BradP!

Besides, if the unsuccessful guy really exists, how classy must it be to be made fun of in an advertisement page? Classy, BradP, really classy!

Now let's consider the second scenario, that is, if BradP didn't coach any of those guys. If this was the case, then the other one "automatically" got good without (!) BradP's help, meaning that he has had "rock solid inner game" already. Only in this scenario would BradP have an excuse for the failure of the other guy because, hey, he hasn't worked with him. So, once again, logic comes to bite lil' BradP in the ass. Hard.

So, which scenario would you rather pick, dear BradP? Frankly, it doesn't even matter because if you try to defend either scenario, you show that you can't think logically. However, BradP's marketing copy clearly states in the beginning, "Let me tell you a story about two of my students." That's a pretty sobering though, huh, BradP? Surely your assistant "Drew" agrees too. Maybe tell him to rewrite the copy. Or maybe he'll send me another lame email in which he's asking to remove something from my website. So, hello "Drew"! I hope you're doing fine, and I can't wait to hear from you again.

As a last remark, I'll let you furthermore know that the whole "inner game" spiel is nonsense. The only true path to "inner game" I know is based on spiritualism, and I'm not talking about Tolle's "Power of Now" here. However, if you really devote yourself to this path and succeed, you won't bother about girls and material possessions anymore because you'll be beyond that. Or can you imagine the Dalai Lama chasing after some blonde bimbo in some LA club, and later on telling his friends that he's bought a condo for 2 million dollars? Frankly, that dude in the email has zero inner game and strikes me as having the ego of a five-year old who has to tell the other kids at kindergarden how much larger his collection of toys is.

Also, someone with sound "inner game" would think twice before sending out an email with an image of a girl that also shows up elsewhere on the Internet:

I'll be back with more laughs on BradP. Stay tuned!