Lots of posts and haven't read them all but here is my take on pickup. There is very little value in the seduction community and is hard to find beyond all the bullsh**.
Most guys are clueless when it comes to dating so when they find the community they absorb all of the information as if it was the truth. They adopt destructive beliefs that take a long time to eliminate.
The problem is that most guys are scared and overly needy when it comes to women. The community does not solve this problem but makes it worse with all of the rules they use. "Never show interest" "Always demonstrate higher value blah blah blah"
This causes men to be overly paranoid about doing the wrong thing. Worrying about doing the wrong thing still holds an underlying neediness (the true problem).
This fear causes men to become social robots spewing out scripted material that other people wrote. It works but over time the one delivering it doesn't feel satisfied because it's not him. It makes him wonder, did she like me or someone else's words?
Pickup doesn't work in relationships and won't attract healthy ones.
Pretending to be aloof draws in women who try to be aloof to cover up their neediness.
Always question who is delivering the advice. Most pickup artists are sociopaths with serious mental disorders-mystery is depressed and tried to commit suicide many times.
The pickup community should be used for a very very short period of time. Use the line "hey, who do you think lies more, men or women?" if you have not approached many women in your life (sober that is). After you have gotten comfortable doing that the line should be dropped. Unfortunately, many men get over that initial fear and still don't take it to the next level-approaching without lines, just little old you.
How to Be Successful With Women in the Wrong Way | Inner Game Reframe
Here's an article talking about basically what is being taught in the seduction community
How to be good with women (in a nutshell)
1. Be confident. Confidence comes from pushing through fears.
2. Learn to be social. You can't learn to be social in a ebook or downloadable product. You become socially competant by being social. Push through your fears (confidence building) and talk to many many people
3. Develop a sense of humor. Humor comes greatly from not being scared to make jokes and being comfortable in your own skin
4. Love yourself-happy people get more women than miserable ones
5. Work on your neediness issues