Has anyone here been able to achieve some sort of breakthrough from an "official" bootcamp or something that they couldn't from reading and practicing on their own or with friends?

I can't "really" say no because I've never done a boot camp.

IMO its not necessary. You can learn on your own. Going to "school" to learn how to talk to girls forces you to admit to a level of inadequacy that may haunt you later.

I drew the line with reading a few books. I want to feel like I succeeded on my own at least to SOME degree. It also allows you to innovate and come up with your own style instead of following a cookie cutter plan.

Just my opinion.

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Women are smarter than you think... but not as smart as THEY think

Funny thing is Gambler and AFC Adam keep saying they became good themself because of the effort they put into it. All a bootcamp does is give you a boost so you'll approach tons of women, give you the right material to use and to help give feedback to what you're doing and did during the bootcamp.
There is tons of material on the web and with the personal experience I can give a rough estimation of what'll work and what wouldn't, but that's just me. Things I find interesting I'll just give a try with the idea of it actually working and everyone could be doing this.

My best advice is to get a good (social) friend that'll be interested in picking up girls with you and give eachother a boost in the back. Bootcamps are there just to become good, fast.

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Optimistic?

i used to help out on bootcamps even though ive never paid to go on one! i do have to say that the reasons guys go on bootcamps is simple they want to learn pickup in the quickest time, learning from pure observation and experience can be a long process bootcamps cut it down to half the time but its expensive, the student is taking away the knowledge and experience of the teacher so the time is cut down. the down side is that they will stick with the material of the teacher because the mindset is 'ok that works, i know that works so thats all i ll use'

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life sucks and then you die! deal with it