Neil Strauss teaches lonely nerds how to successfully turn the pursuit of relationships into any other mundane, superficial, and meaningless activity. At one point he suggests that mechanical bullriding gave him a bigger thrill than chasing another lonely 10 model. However, there are some lessons buried beneath the bro high fives. Like Dave Navarro and Strauss pointed out in their book, Don’t Try this at Home, people can’t fix their social retardation with money, drugs, and sex. Most of these glorified players started off as lonely dungeon and dragon nerds who severely lacked social skills and desperately desired female companionship and affection, but they realized that the only bonding they found was with each other. For example, years after this book was released, Strauss’ long term girlfriend will make a public statement suggesting Strauss is incapable of getting it up without his bro support. In fact, each time these guys tried to pursue an actual relationship they ended up failing horribly. This was because they conquered and disavowed any emotional connection, especially to females. Their successful tricks and pick up lines became mechanized and repeated by each other to the point where their personalities blended together and were consciously copied. Their superficial egos would inflate with each conquest, but when reality popped their bubble, they became sniveling and suicidal wrecks. This is because most of them didn’t learn how to become a better person. They just successfully learned another activity that would distract the bros from themselves. It’s definitely not surprising that Neil Strauss would later hook up with the Entourage writer and create their own series.
When it comes to the narrative structure, this is consciously Strauss’ On the Road. It even has its own Dean Moriarty in the guise of Mystery, except the existential search for meaning might have eluded Strauss and his fellow cohorts. They know it’s there, but inevitably they are too high on themselves to actually see it. I have read and loved everything this guy has written, yet this was probably the least introspective biography self-help guide I have read. Of course, he made several points that a writer is too boring to brag about despite the fact he is a writer for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Playboy. It’s always interesting how narcissist can have such an inflated ego but lack any self-esteem. That may explain why the semi-autobiographies he helped write were far more interesting. Meanwhile, this came off as a midlife crisis in progress. The most interesting people in this whole book were Courtney Love followed closely by Tom Cruise. Who would have thought, huh?
Will this book help some lonely guys talk to girls and get dates? Absolutely. Will it help lonely guys stop being lonely? Absolutely not.