"Many men don't realize it, but the game is actually linear"
-Mystery.

Is the process of mastering the game linear as well?
I believe it is.

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Project PUMa, or Pick Up Mastery, was born to answer the question at hand.
Its objective - defining the exact steps, and their exact order, that one must take on his journey to pick-up excellence.
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1) Define exactly what you want. What kind of women do you want to attract? How many women do you want to sleep with? Do you want a girlfriend or a series of one night stands? Use SMART goals:
S: Specific. ‘I want to be good with women’ isn’t specific enough.
M: measurable.
A: All areas (you can choose focusing on relationship goals, but I recommend working on health, career and spiritual ones as well)
R: Realistic. While the sky is the limit, you should set your goals in a way that keeps you motivated, not continually frustrated.
T: Timed. This is important. Write down the exact deadline for each goal.
2) Build your daily routine in a way that gets you to your goals. Big change is achieved in small bits. Exercising once or twice a month won’t get you in a good shape. Same goes with pick up. Exercise regularly.
3) Keep a journal. Track your progress DAILY. I don't care if you come home tired, drunk, frustrated or whatever - write down what you did today and learn from your mistakes. If nothing interesting happened to you, write it down anyway, and make sure something interesting happens tomorrow. Personal feedback is the single most powerful tool at your disposal.
4) Fix your inner game.
A: write down your current belief system concerning women and dating.
Make sure you define exactly what's holding you back. I recommend reading some books on the subject.
B: write down the way you would like to view women and dating (i.e. - I am the single most attractive man in the world. Hot women fall at my feet by the thousands. Sometime I just feel like a victim of sexual harassment, and I spend two hours every night kicking women out of my bed so that I can get a good night sleep)
C: Get a good book about beliefs. Start with rooting out the ones that hold you back. Continue with implementing the ones that will make you successful.
5) Fix your middle game.
A: Make your looks work for you. Join a gym. Eat healthy. Do some research about men’s fashion and buy yourself some good clothes. Get a good haircut. Get a tan. Get a good cologne. Lose unattractive body hair. Trim nails. Get yourself at least one interesting item (note: I said interesting, not idiotic. Peacocking doesn’t always mean walking around with a dildo attached to your head)
B: Read some books about body language and tonality. Perfect both of them. Slow your gestures to create an air of mystery. Add pauses to your speech to build tension. I would even recommend taking acting classes. If you work on your own – record yourself for feedback. You won’t believe the difference between what you think you look and sound like and your actual performance. Many mp3 players have built in audio recorders. Use them wisely.
6) Build your outer game.
A: Choose several skills you want to acquire or improve. Some examples are Cold reading, palm reading, astrology, magic tricks, handwrite analysis, humor, storytelling, dancing, messaging, thumb wrestling, etc. The list goes on and on. Don’t focus on too many at any given time. Many PUAs tend to get lost in the sea of free information that is available today.
B: Choose one or more pick up methods and learn it. Learn the game thoroughly. It’s not that it is impossible succeeding with your own ways, but the existing methods are already built and tested for you.
C: Learn routines for every part of the game. Whether it is a small bit (you blink a lot) or full-length heavy artillery (the Cube, the October man sequence), make sure you have material for every step from the approach to the close.
7) Practice.
A: Begin with low-commitment low-risk practice. Choose a few openers and launch them several times a day. Get an answer and eject from the set. Get used to delivering them. The same goes with every routine ever invented. You have to use it dozens of times until it becomes natural. Practice on everyone possible. Practice on your female friends. Practice on your aunt. Practice on your cat.
B: Put the pieces together. Once well trained in individual routines, start exploring different combinations of them. Experiment until you find the ones that work best for you. Do this until you can lead a girl at least through the attraction parts of the game without stopping (some will say comfort building is better with little or no material, and I tend to agree).
8) Perfect.
I covered this one in the beginning. If you fail – and you will – always think of a better way to deal with the situation in the future. Come up with new ideas, responses and routines. A well known philosophy in the art of self improvement is that failure is a concept invented by man. There is no failure, only learning. Follow my steps and keep a journal of your progress. A few months from now you will stumble upon one of your past mistakes. You will see, as I did, that the lesson learned by your mistake was worth every bit of discomfort you experienced in that particular moment of failure.

This is my point of view, and now I would like to hear yours. Think your ways are easier? Faster? Better? Good. Comment on this post. Add your own views to my still-imperfect model. Your help will be greatly appreciated.