Once in a while I read things from people who claim looks do matter in pickup and that the pickup rules don't work. I think people look at those rules in the wrong way. You shouldn't see these rules as some kind of magic lines that you apply and suddenly a hb10 gets a crush on you.

For me, the rules of pickup are about getting the best out of yourself. Nature gave you a package of talents. Some of these talents are not developped for some reason that is specific for each person. Interacting with women/people is something that you have to learn by doing it a lot. The rules are there to learn you how to interact properly with a girl. The rules are also there to change you as a person. They learn you how to deal with rejection, how to boost your confidence, that girls like to be teased, that you should not hide your sexual intentions, ... The rules are there to make you understand all these things such that you can start behaving like a normal and social guy.

There is no way you can question these rules, even if they don't work. There are several reasons for this:

1. The fact that you are reading and learning all these rules is the proof that what you were doing before wasn't working very good. These rules will 100 % be better.

2. Even if you get shot down by many HBs while applying these rules, they still are the best possible rules and therefore get the best out of you. It is as simple as that. Bad luck for you if this still isn't enough for you but you will not get any better. This is the absolute pinaccle where you can get. So you are ugly with good game but don't get HBs, well then you will maybe have to settle for the HBs4-5 . You think that is bad ? Well without game you would probably have to settle for a HB1-2 (UB 10-9) which is even more scary.

You cannot tell for sure if some rules will be better. Everyone must find something that suits his personality. And actually there are no "rules". There is useful advice - not rules that someone must obey.

Yes you can. In general you need some basic flow in your interaction. For example, if you just go up to a girl you don't know and start asking her very personal questions she will get freaked out by you. That is why you should start building report once you got her to the point she trusts you. This is one of the rules that we are thought. Of course, you can find some situations where you go up to a woman and start immediately with report and still get to close her. Another example, suppose you like a girl and have a good conversation with her and decides to kiss close her. The rules tell you that you first have to isolate her because else she will probably not allow you to kiss her because of social pressure. This is true and described in the pickup rules. Maybe even more important is kino. Most of my female friends have already told me that it is really important to touch the girl when you interact because they really feel something when you are touching them. This is also described in the pickup rules. And I can go on and on and on with this.

The rules coming from the community are for 100 % the best possible rules. Why ? Because they are a result of many many years and many many experiments of many many men. All the bad things were filtered and the good things were combined and calibrated. You think you can just come up as a newbie and find rules that are better than those ? This is evolution theory at work. The rules of 1 individual can never compete against the rules of an entire population which are a result of years of evolution. Therefore, these are the best rules whether you like it or not.

Well... I can show you people that know nothing about the "rules" of "the community" and are amazing with women. Actually this is the reason they know nothing about it And if you haven't realized it yet - after you get good with women you can do things against the "rules" and still do great. On the other side you can do exactly what you're told and ruin everything. My point is that there aren't rules. Nothing works 100% of the time. There are things that can make your chances better. But not every "rule" is designed for everyone. If someone tells a guy who can't hold eye contact "Go and neg a woman." what do you thing will happen? The only reason that some men here are good with women is because they practice. If you go and talk to 1000 women and learn from your mistakes you will become better than someone who follows "rules" and has talked to 2 girls.
All I'm saying is that everyone must find his own way of improvement. And what works for one may not work for another. Women aren't robots. Yes, evolution plays an important role but it's not all. There are so many factors that you cannot control. She might be in a bad mood, she might be a lesbian, she might be pregnant. You cannot be sure that if you follow the rules you will get something.
The only useful "rule" is to be flexible. If you are flexible enough with your communication than you can handle pretty much everything. And this is something that you learn by practicing.

Well I am happy for you that you know people who are succesful with women without knowing about the community. But that doesn't mean that the rules aren't the best. Maybe those people you know are natural. These people may have had a lot of social interactions and therefore gained many experience by themselves. But at the end, I am convinced that 95 % of the way they interact should more or less be congruent with the pickup rules. Besides that if they would read stuff from the community I dare to bet that their succes will increase.

Now, going back to your example, if a guy who has problems holding eye contact doesn't neg a hot woman, he will not be able to get that hot woman. You have to lower her value unless maybe if you are some super gourgous guy. If you are scared to look into her eyes and have a normal conversation with her, how on earth are you going to pick her up ? For a guy like that no technique works. He should first deal with his inner confidence. The community does give answer to solve his inner game. They say that they should start having smalltalk to many people, men or women. Once they feel comfortable speaking with strangers, they can just open a girl, ask a simple question and get out. The community teaches you how you can get over AA and your nerves around women in small steps. Once you have dealt with this inner issues of yours, the community prescribes a sequence of actions that you should do in order to get the girl. The things they prescribe do work. Thinks like cocky and funny, teasing, palm reading, cold reads, ... they do work. Girls like those things.

Well, anyway, I think it is not usefull to discuss these things anymore. If you are convinced that all these rules are useless and you only need to be flexible, well you keep on being flexible. But what really questions me is what the hell are you doing in the PUA community if you have your 1 rule about flexibility ? You have nothing to learn here anymore, man. You have everything a man can wish for. You are flexible.

Hm... couldn't find where I said that the rules are useless or I don't have anything to learn. Learning things and trying them actually helps you become more flexible with your communication. Yeah - a groundbreaking discovery, I know But you're right about one thing - it is not useful to discuss this things anymore. We just have two different points of view.

Finally we found something we agree on .

Here follows a quote of you:
So if flexibility is the only useful rule, you imply automatically that all the other rules are useless.

Says who? You? You're just one person (with a very fucking closedminded view on things) and can't speak for every single other person. PUA may work for some and not for others while non-PUA ways of getting girls may work for some and not for others.