Hah, I love that xkcd strip, first time seeing it.
First of all I want to address the dehumanizing aspect of pick-up artists: yup, I agree to that to some point.
It is dehumanizing if you are actively exploiting it to manipulate women. If picking up women becomes a sport, there is something definitely wrong. There is a very fine line of between being a playboy and being a psychopath, which I might expand later if anyone is interested.
Now regarding to what the "female" character says in that strip, that's precisely the focus of my philosophy. It is about changing who you are, and self-improvement is something absolutely doable. If rats can be taught to ride skateboards, I believe it is very depressing to think that humans don't have the ability to improve our skills. And social skills are still a skill, and it is learnable.
This isn't about techniques, methods and systems. Those prepackaged stuff are bound to fail, whats more, I suspect that they are designed to fail.
The main capital sin of the pick-up artist literature is that they treat women as one homogeneous group, so if you put in practice X method they promise it will work.
The second problem is that some are encouraging denial and self-deception: if it fails, don't waste time on her you will find another one, so don't get attached anyway.
So most of them encourage you to become this big asshole who will end up attracting easy girls who are really easy to get laid with, others implicitly try to train you to get sophisticated bimbos with daddy issues. Most methods unwittingly are designed with a particular type of girl in mind. What these so called "pickup artists" ignore is that every girl belongs to a particular type of subculture and these experts who were successful with these type of girls, inadvertently they force you to become like them and join their subculture, which you may not belong.
I consider that you must achieve your full potential according to who you are as a person, as yourself, otherwise you will end up lying to yourself and end up hurting your potential significant other.
In short, don't follow methods blindly without a self-examination of who you are, acknowledge the limitations that you have, and envision what you want to become. That's the essential first step to actual self-improvement, and the first step to develop your
own methods.
Now responding to the users:
I dunno... I'm the very definition of introvert, and even I've had good experiences with picking up ladies
I mean, they've all hit on me first, but that's beside the point. The general rule of thumb when trying to get dates is this: Be honest, and treat the one you've got your eye on like they're people. Works every time.
If girls hit on you first, probably you are good looking or at least above average.
What is really important though, is your self-confidence. If someone lacks self-confidence, it doesn't matter how you treat women, they will not feel attracted to you and you'll be considered a friend, not a lover or a partner.
In any case, if you don't have problems with your love life, good for you.
But that rule of thumb is not applicable to everyone, especially to those who lack basic social skills and experience with the opposite sex.
Try this:
Hi! My name is (Douchebag), what is your name? (Wait for her to answer dont be a douche, if she gives you her name then continue) I find you attractive and outgoing with a beautiful smile and I would like to get to know you and if you are interested, here is my number (give piece of paper to her dont be a douche).
That is a very good direct approach. I encourage this a lot.
Although it may sound counter-intuitive, women find this very bold and they get very flattered. She might reject you, but she will not forget you... but this style
must be congruent with your personality.
Now before finishing this post, I would like to make a comment regarding to "negs". I hate that term because it misleads people.
It is not about being an asshole, it is about teasing playfully. That's the safest way of throwing a girl from her pedestal, and at the same time being safe of not offending her. You may use dry negs afterwards, if you know what you are doing, but don't abuse it and never repeat a neg.