What Is AMOG? PUA Jargon Becomes Pickup Strategy

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Game" by Neil Strauss. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.

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What does the term AMOG mean in the PUA community?

The AMOG PUA term refers to the “alpha male of the group.” The term was commonly used on the PUA community, and was incorporated into the strategy of PUA guru Tyler Durden. Through Durden and other gurus, the AMOG term in PUA lingo evolved into its own strategy .

AMOG in The PUA Community

When Neil plunged into the seduction community’s online world of websites and message boards, he discovered an entire subculture. People used aliases—Neil’s would become Style—and they used a jargon that included the following terms, such as the AMOG definition:

AFC: average frustrated chump
AMOG: alpha male of the group
HB: hot babe
PUA: pickup artist
Sarging: picking up women

Members of the community wrote posts sharing strategies, divulging details of their exploits, or asking for advice. Beyond the virtual world, men in cities around the world gathered weekly to share techniques and then go to clubs together to put the tactics to use.

The community’s leaders were a handful of PUAs who had reached guru status, each of whom taught disciples his distinct set of rules and principles of the pickup game. The gurus used a combination of psychology, magic tricks, and hypnosis to seduce women.

Tyler Durden Hits the Community by Storm

The AMOG definition was established by a new PUA Tyler Durden. Durden was a 22-year-old college student who dove head-first into the seduction community, reading thousands of pages of archived posts on the message boards and relentlessly emailing Style for tips.

Growing up, Tyler had been physically and intellectually behind his peers, and his father had measured him against standards that Tyler couldn’t achieve. Out of that constant feeling of inadequacy grew someone who spoke and acted strategically in an effort to make everyone think he was powerful. Over time, Tyler had come to think that all human interactions could be both calculated and manipulated—which primed him for the rules and tactics of the pickup game—to the extent that he lacked human empathy.

Tyler proposed that new members of the community get over their shyness by physically running into women or hitting them with something soft, in a way that was meant to be playful. His approach to seduction was abrasive, shameless, and totally different from traditional methods that required more studying and memorizing techniques.

However, for all Tyler’s bravado, he seemed to be more focused on sarging (hitting on women) than closing. One day, he posted a field report about how he’d leaned over the counter and kissed the cashier at a juice bar—but when she invited him into the back room, he froze.

Nonetheless, Tyler’s brazenness and constant presence on the seduction message boards helped him become well-known within the community, and soon he became Papa’s wing.

Tyler Durden and Papa Go Rogue

As green as Tyler Durden was, the seduction message boards were full of impressive reviews of Tyler’s work in Mystery’s workshops, including his AMOG definition. In fact, students were so enthusiastic about the workshops that there was a demand for more.

After teaching his workshops in England and Amsterdam, Mystery flew home and left Tyler Durden and Papa behind to run a few more workshops to meet the demand. Papa and Tyler were supposed to simply continue teaching the Mystery Method, but, one night, they went off-script and invented AMOGing.

AMOGs—the alpha males of the group—are obstacles to PUAs. While most PUAs were nerds and outcasts in high school, most AMOGs were popular jocks. When a PUA tried picking up a girl in a group, the AMOG usually cut him down with insults. Tyler and Papa created the tactic they called AMOGing in order to deflate AMOGs who stood in their way. That way, the AMOG PUA would be able to achieve his goals.

AMOGing: Step by Step

Tyler Durden described the steps of using the AMOG PUA strategy in an online post:

When the AMOG first tries to intercept your target, double-down on his interception by jokingly asking the AMOG to please get the woman away from you. This is designed to make the woman object to leaving you, which is one strike against the AMOG.
When the AMOG insults you, facetiously say that you’re trying to impress him and insert an insult you can glean from looking at him. For example, you can say that you’re trying hard to impress him and the rest of the polo-wearing guys. It may not be something inherently negative, but pointing it out like this will make him self-conscious.
When the AMOG insults you again, joke that he’s trying to become your friend. For example, tell the AMOG that he’s funny, but he doesn’t have to try so hard to be funny to make you like him.
When the AMOG looks like he wants to fight, call it out and sarcastically suggest facing off in an arm-wrestling or one-armed push-up competition. This is meant to mock the AMOG in PUA for trying too hard and flexing his physical power.
When the AMOG touches you aggressively, tell him you’re not gay. He’ll begin insisting that he’s not gay.
When the AMOG tries to physically intimidate you, don’t say or do anything. If he keeps trying to engage you, and you still don’t respond, it makes him look like he’s trying to get your attention, and that you’re above it. At this point, you can make an eye signal to the woman for you both ditch the AMOG for the PUA, and she’ll go with you.

Tyler went on to write that it’s key to smile confidently when confronting an AMOG, because a confident smile is emblematic of and AMOG in PUA. Essentially, you want to out-AMOG the AMOG.

Tyler Durden and Papa Create Their Own Company

Tyler Durden and Papa didn’t stop at inventing the AMOG PUA strategy—they built a company around it. Their company was called Real Social Dynamics, and it offered a website and in-field workshops.

For Mystery, this was adding insult to injury: Not only did Tyler and Papa use his workshops as a platform to develop and promote AMOGing, but the name of their competing business was one word off from the name of Mystery’s seminars, Social Dynamics.

In addition, the format of Real Social Dynamics workshops mirrored Mystery’s setup:

They were three nights
They started and ended at the same times
They cost the same

The primary difference between the two workshops—besides the techniques—was that Mystery only allowed six students per workshop, while Tyler and Papa had dozens. The pair was making money hand over fist.

Tyler and Papa’s company set off a spark of entrepreneurship in the community. Other sargers and PUAs realized that they could just as easily start their own seduction business, because:

If these two young rookies could run workshops, anyone could.
There was an insatiable demand for pickup strategies.

Throughout the community, men were offering workshops, creating websites, marketing products, selling DVDs, and writing e-books about seduction. Many of the entrepreneurs were far from experts: Several of the men were fairly new to the community, and one had lost his virginity just a month before offering workshops.

AMOGs in the PUA community have their own lingo and method. AMOG PUAs often believe they have an advantage over other PUAs as well.

What Is AMOG? PUA Jargon Becomes Pickup Strategy