I've always had this feeling that game and pickup is actually as simple as common sense, and that the PUA community tries to overcomplicate things. Please let me know if I'm wrong. I just watched the comedy The Green Hornet. It's about a rich looser (inherited his father's business) who becomes some weird super-hero-wannabe with his sidekick Kato, who does all the actual work. In the middle of all comic nonsense there is this girl Leonore, played by Cameron Diaz, the babe of the movie.

The main character, Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), is druling over Leonore and behaves in all unsuccessful (from a PUA perspective) ways possible. Of course, he doesn't get the girl and she was even close to sue him for sexual harassment. Obviously this is all for comic effect. And why is it comic? Because it's so damn obvious that that's not the way to treat a girl! It's common sense!

His sidekick Kato does much better. He treats the girl with respect, having the right distance and attitude. He doesn't get her either however, because he makes the mistake to kino her "accidently" in a sensual kind of way (more than just friendly) which spoils everything, because he was still in the comfort building phase.

So, if screenwriters and actors know all about this stuff, how come PUAs find it so hard? Myself, I learned how easy game can be as soon as I quit trying, and quit calling myself a PUA.

Go back to touching yourself.

If you're not trolling and genuinely got better results after doing what felt natural...

You probably got caught up in the fluff stuff. I guess it's like martial arts. They're supposed to be practical, useful ways to defend yourself and fight, but it's gotten so watered down and caught up in commercial-ness that so many martial arts schools/dojos/dojangs no longer teach things you should use in a fight, to the point where to find a school to actually teach you useful fighting skills is a rarity and almost not expected in most.

How can PUA stuff be bad for you when it's supposed to teach you how to interact with and around women? That's the whole point. If you get good without it, fair enough but it's like saying 'once I stopped trying to learn french and just lived among the locals, I got much better'. ...how? Dedicated training/lessons will surely always be faster provided you're learning good stuff. Maybe you weren't learning good stuff, or maybe you're a troll?