Not that everything in the book was nonsense. Just that most of it was seedy, sleazy shit. The PUA acronyms. The in-field signals. The manipulative techniques applied. The weird routines (that stemmed from mystery's magician background). Oh and now I mention it, the bizzare alter-egos that they named themselves, like fucking mystery.

There's some genuine psychology stuff that's sound, perhaps like rocking on the back foot and whatever. But if you're consciously thinking about doing that kind of thing "in set", you've already lost. Because your mind is elsewhere, ticking off the next box, rather than being authentic.