Tuesday, September 22, 2015

David vs. Goliath

My Wife envies my intellectual ability sometimes. She knows I see things she does not, she knows I understand policies she does not, and she knows I craft strategies she cannot.

Even more, she fears not keeping my interest. She's not an intellectual person. She's a "here's my day!" kind of person.

She asked how she might ramp up her intellectual ability, quickly. I suggested Malcolm Gladwell books, and after struggling through 50 pages of "Blink," she opted for "David vs. Goliath" on audio CD. Which her mom already read, and boy do I have comments on that later!

First, though, I want you to watch Gladwell's TED talk, where he recounts David Vs. Goliath. Or if not, skip the link, and see the quick summation.

http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_the_unheard_story_of_david_and_goliath?language=en

Gladwell says we understand David and Goliath all wrong. Goliath is at a severe handicap: he's practically blind, he's heavy infantry. David is the ancient equivalent of field artillery, a dedicated slinger.

Skip to 3:30 below to see a slingshot compared to a variety of weapons. The metal ball hits with more force than a modern handgun.




So, why are surprised Goliath lost?

Gladwell's book addresses all sorts of apparent underdogs who persevere over more superior foes, and a major advantage of the underdogs often possess is desperation.

Desperation isn't always good, but people with nothing to lose can often become quite innovative. While most new ideas are terrible, desperate people with the right set of skills and the right amount of luck often develop entirely new strategies, that dominante over less advanced, stiffer strategies.

This is actually the case for World War II: France and Britain outnumbered the Germans substantially. Superior German tactics led the accidental invention of Blitzkrieg, which dominated the static Allied defenses. But make no mistake, Germany was desperate. Hitler, the little emo-art student he was, practically had daily breakdowns during the Phony War period, because the terrified Furher could not imagine possibly prevailing against the combined British-French forces.

So, what the hell, go for broke.

It worked.

Now take a look at some of YaReally's post at the Rational Male, regarding Pick-Up:

I can do shit that people who meet me or see me don’t expect me to be able to do and, unless they’ve studied a shitload of game, can’t wrap their heads around. I’m not floating on water, even Tyler Julien etc constantly remind their students that they’re not gods (despite the marketing lol), they’re just guys who know how to execute very specific steps and strategies to create specific reactions in people and play the chessboard optimally. That’s it. ANYONE can do it. We’re all just fucking NERDS who were supposed to be weeded out of evolution except we decided going out and talking to girls a few nights a week was more fun than playing xbox or jumping off a building or dying a virgin lol


One of the big differences between a PUA and a Natural is that when a Natural isn’t “in state” as we call it (your flowy state), we have conscious steps we can take to get ourselves INTO that state whereas a Natural is kind of at the mercy of luck with it which can be frustrating at times.

we had a “Tactics & Techniques” section on the old boards where you weren’t allowed to post a technique till you’ve personally tried it successfully at least 3 times, and then guys would go out and pressure test that shit and discuss what was going on and narrow down the results and figure out how the data fit into or changed what we understood about social dynamics.


The guys over at TRM really like YaReally. Maybe he's lying, but they regard him as a pretty talented PUA. He didn't start that way. He started out at as a 24 year old nerd who couldn't get laid. But, as he said, he had no ego left at 24.

I'm not surprised. I was a 24 year old virgin, too, along with a close friend of mind, the NASA Scientist. The NASA Scientist dated a religious Lutheran girl who denied him sex and then put out for another guy on the first night.  We both agreed that if we actually made it to 25 and were still virgins, we should probably kill ourselves. That's about the amount of ego you have left as a 24 year old virgin.

Doubly-so for him, who, even with a girlfriend, could not get laid. A girlfriend who was quite willing to fuck the correct guy under the correct situation. "The Correct Guy" did not include "NASA Scientist," which I guess says a lot about how religious girls who are virgins at 25 value men.

And, yes, that's why I say "Even the Shy Girls" do not meet quality standards.

But whereas my NASA Scientist friend entered a self-destructive loop of social anxiety and shyness that has resulted in him losing his job and getting mental treatment (and did I mention he's still a third-wave feminist?), YaReally joined the pick-up community and practiced.

Hard.

He went out most nights, as part of a community solely focused on grabbing girls and doing a good job of it.

He's become pretty damn good at getting girls.

He's a David, but he owned a lot of unique strengths. He had no ego left, which was good: it opened him up to new ideas. A lot of nerdy guys hold on to their social egos, which actually holds them back. He was smart, and he had a willingness to work hard, and he found the right community that he could teach him the right things.

David's have a lot of advantages, if only they put them to use.

Unfortunately, that means correcting a lot of misguided internal beliefs. Which is why the Red Pill exists more broadly than the PUA movement, and why we talk about defying the Matrix: we are trying to liberate young men's minds from toxic narratives that dominate society, and poison young men's minds.


In totally related news, the Architect visited Sunday night. He brought some leftover blueberry pie.

"I'm happy he's so Betty Crocker," my Wife said. "I mean, so designer, and baking-"

"You mean, he's a girl."

"I didn't want to put it that way, but yeah."


Sunday, September 20, 2015

Damn That Smell

We finally have some new floors!



We contracted this job. A little piece of my soul died this week, but refinishing hardwood floors and potentially losing any sense of evenness terrified me. What I have in enthusiaism, I lose in finesse. Never even learned to color in the lines!

Luckily, the Contractor pained out some options on the floor. Father suggested Cherry, but my Wife and I opted for something a bit more natural. Of the above, I leaned towards the middle-brown Nutmeg color above. It's a mid-tone and shows a lot of the natural wood grain.

We played around with different lights throughout the day. At the end of the night, we blasted some incandescents on the floor, and...well...Nutmeg turned into a sickly gray.  Like, zombified flesh.

So we opted for the dark, English Chestnut instead.



Dark? A little bit, but the color shows up well under most lights. The last is the morning sun hitting the floor, and the floors are really beautiful. Once we put proper lighting throughout the main floor, we'll have a good, warm tone throughout the whole space.

Downside? Oh man that smell. The contractors stained Monday and finished Wednesday, and now, on Sunday, I still smell a harsh shoe polish everywhere.

The next project is moving all that furniture back in position and buying some new couches to match the space. Oh and getting vehicle stickers removed and addressing more tax concerns.


Oh, yay, adult life.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Post Labor Day

The Beta household failed to hit our targets for Labor Day work, but there's worse things in the world.

Brief update: Those weeds mysteriously vanished, along with most of the 6 foot high, razor sharp monstrosities along the property line. Victory!

I felt great after the weeds died and carried the momentum forward into Labor Day Weekend. My friend, a Chicago school teacher, wanted to celebrate his last weekend of freedom with some good old fashion manual labor.

No problem. I swung by his apartment at 8 AM Saturday morning, picked up a few things from Home Depot, and went about ripping out this ugly gray stuff.

Mother Dearest warned me about the endless tedium involved in ripping out carpet. Nahhhhh. There's an honest fun in doing a bit of manual labor, and tearing out carpet ranks low on the required-skill level. Anyone can do it. Plus the guys I had on hand (another friend showed up after his work called unexpectedly) loved the work.

We started at 10 AM and wrapped up the last few staples by 2 PM. Nice, easy day. Beautiful hardwood underneath, but it's an old coat that needs refinished.

Left: Hardwood under the carpet. Right: Exposed hardwood. The exposed hardwood was refinished, looks like with a water finish. Looks less glossy. The right side sits a bit lower, since the finishing process stripped the top layer.



Unfortunately, refinishing the floors seemed out of reach. It's something an amateur can do, but I have a little hand-eye coordination problem, and a total lack of finesse. Since I never learned to color between the lines, my Wife and I agreed that refinishing the wood floors would be best left up to the professionals.

Red Pill continues per usual. No daily wife beatings, no beheadings, no negs, and I didn't even chain my wife to the kitchen.


Saturday, September 5, 2015

On That Whole Trump Thing

Since Trump will stay in the limelight the next few weeks, and people will keep talking about him in the context of the resurgence/extremeness/rightness/etc of conservative values, let me give a shot at explaining Trump.

Most people in the Establishment and the Cathedral, and those in thrall, assume Trump reflects several failing trends in American politics. He's the result of Americans getting more polarized and pissed off, especially as a result of Conservative Talk Radio, he's all flare and no substance, etc.

He's a nightmare, because all negative trends culminate in Trump. He represents everything bad about America.

Right. Let's disregard those Establishment-sanctioned narratives for a moment.

First, Trump isn't unusual, even in American politics. We've a similar campaign before in our recent history. Anyone remember this guy?



Perot captured 20% of the vote, mostly from the Right, effectively handing the election to Clinton. Without Trump, we most likely would have had nearly 3 straight decades of Republican rule between 1980 and 2008, instead of the pseudo-Democrat in the 1990s.

Trump and Perot aren't even unusual in the grand scheme of Western politics. God I hate Vox Media, but they nail their coverage on Trump pretty well: right-ish anti-immigration politics coupled with populist protection of social safety programs are insanely popular across the world

These policies aren't supported by the Cathedral or the Conservative Establishment. Look at the Bush administration: Bush wanted to partially-privatize Social Security, as well as push through a comprehensive immigration reform that granted a "Path to Citizenship."

People remember how everyone hated privatized Social Security, but everyone forgets that immigration reform was killed, too, because the American people (particularly mainstream Republicans) don't want that garbage. They want their property rights protected, and that's government's job. Trump reflects a large number of people who have no voice in politics.

By Vox's numbers, essentially 90% of America wants Social Security protected and immigration reduced. Which party supports that?

But, wait, that sounds like "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare."

Well, yeah. That's because Medicare is an enshrined property right. In the American political consciousness, we paid into Medicare and Social Security, and we deserve those benefits. The government manages that money, but it's not welfare and it's not a hand-out.

What the Tea Partiers are accurately if not artfully expressing is that Medicare feels a lot like a property right. Our most important property rights are often claims on people or institutions...Medicare and Social Security are, from users’ perspective, property, no different from a privately funded health or pension plan...People consider themselves “entitled” to their entitlements because they view them as property.
 The Republican Establishment wants to cut property rights and admit a whole bunch of non-Americans. The Cathedral wants to water down the property rights of established Americans to give new property rights to "disenfranchised" Americans, in addition to admitting a whole set of New Americans.

Opposing these policies is mainstream, not extreme, and that means Donald Trump is a mainstream centrist, not extreme.What's extreme is his delivery, which is why a lot of Republicans don't like him (he's Nickleback!))), and he probably won't be the Republican nominee.


My money is on Rubio, but that's just me.

Now, my personal stance? I'm a mainstream Establishment Republican. Cut those SS benefits and privatize them. More high-skill immigration probably won't hurt, though I'd like to enforce the border and keep out hordes of unskilled except on guest passes, and only with a better monitoring system. AKA, George W Bush policy platforms(and I actually like that guy).

I wrote in N Gregory Mankiw in 2008 because I hate McCain and REALLY hate Obama (unlike establishment Republicans who endorsed him twice). In 2012, I voted Romney proudly.

In 2016? Screw it. I've had enough of Progressive dogma. What I love most about Trump is that he pisses off all my Progressive friends. These guys all love Bernie Sanders and think anyone to the right must be in the pocket of the Koch brothers.

They hate Trump, and worse, they fear Trump. They used Palin as a punch-line to their jokes: Trump they try to ignore, except to explain how stupid Americans are, and how stupid Trump is.

Pretty much anything that scares Progressives makes me happy.