Those of you who’ve been Krausermaniacs since the good old days stretching back to 2009-ish will remember how this blog began: as a chronicle of my uncertain journey into the crimson arts. Old-skool Krauser was not the debonair, opinionated, loudmouth you know and love today. Oh no he wasn’t! [1] The secret sauce of my blog was its relentless focus upon my learning game, its hyper-documentation of results (and, initially, lack thereof), and the soul-searchingly candid nature of my writing. I was thinking aloud, organising my mind, and trying to get good with girls.

I don’t write like that any more. I finished my Player’s Journey. To the extent I write about Game, it’s as memoirs and textbooks passing on my conclusions, with hindsight [2]

I’m now wondering whether it’s time to go back to my old style of blogging. Not about Game, of course. Life’s journey never really pauses for breath. There’s always something to be getting on with. I’ve always been a tenacious character, someone who doesn’t do things in half measures [3]. That tenacity hasn’t disappeared, I’ve simply turned it towards other ends. Specifically, finishing the memoir, reading books, and smashing the gym.

I haven’t much felt like writing about it and – with that being all I’ve done this past year or more – that means I haven’t much felt like blogging. Now, I’m thinking perhaps I need to humble myself again. Though I developed a rather high level of competence in daygame, I’m still amateurish and clumsy in the new challenges I’ve taken on. Perhaps I should use this blog as a journal to chronicle my new path, my new thoughts, and see how that goes. Kinda like the good old days.

Unlike my daygame writing, I won’t be pitching myself as any kind of authority on the new subject matter. I’m learning. Other people are teaching me things. I’m trying to clarify my thoughts. This is the sounding board as I do so.

So, what’s going on in Krauserworld right now? A dopamine detox, that’s what. Listen to this guy:

 

To summarise: the human brain rewards us with four pleasure chemicals. Dopamine is the cocaine, released in anticipation of getting what we desire. Seratonin is the chest-puffing pleasure of achievement, of moving up the dominance hierarchy. Oxytocin is the opium pipe, the warm fuzzy feeling of connection with and acceptance by others. Endorphins are the anaesthetic, the jab that numbs physical pain.

The problem with modern life is we are inundated with a super-stimulation of dopamine-triggering activities: Netflix, video games, social media, and the biggest and baddest of them all- chasing skirt internet porn. Your next dopamine fix is only ever an arm’s length away, in the form of your smartphone. Or a walk to the nice restaurant [4].

People don’t get bored anymore.

Our dopamine is limited. If you release it negligently on high-stimulation/low-value activities there won’t be any left to power you in low-stimulation/high-value activities. So, we must carefully manage it.

Regular readers will see why this thesis interests me. Chasing skirt is a non-stop roller-coaster ride of dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin, endorphins, and cortisol. Hardcore skirt-chasers become dopamine-addled lunatics. Girl Junkies.

Ultimate Man came from the No Fap movement, developing his ideas as he struggled to abstain from internet porn. I think if you substitute porn with skirt-chasing, his ideas become relevant [5]. His videos have been showing me an interesting theoretical basis for what I’d already concluded subconsciously: I need to lower my stimulation levels.

Early this year, I thought I could simply give up the Game and find myself a serious girlfriend. But, as the year wore on, I realised that- deep down- I didn’t actually want a girlfriend. My intellectual forebrain concluded getting a bird would be a wise move, but my emotional hindbrain didn’t actually want one. Why not? This puzzled me for months on end. Skirt would walk past me, I thought it wise to get a piece of that skirt, and yet I felt no desire to reach out and grab it.

Could it be Approach Anxiety? Hardly. My daygame record ranks me firmly within the world’s top 0.1% of men least likely to be crippled by approach anxiety. I actually did do sets this year- probably a few hundred- and did bang a few girls. But…… I didn’t really want to. The drive wasn’t there.

Why?

I trust my subconscious. Since early 2018 it has been telling me to give up on women and give up on the player lifestyle. Initially, I wasn’t especially receptive to that message, but it finally got through in mid-2018 and is gradually sinking in. Nowadays, I’m attempting to shake off every last vestige of my being a player. To my surprise, that stuff had settled much deeper into my being than I realised. It’s in my bones. Last year I cut most of my links with the Euro Jaunt community: no more jaunts, no notch-hunting, no talking about game, no WhatsApp +1 groups. I turned my focus to a strict diet, gym, and lots of reading. It was an informal dopamine detox, before I knew what one of them was.

Since encountering Universal Man two weeks ago, I’m giving his advice a try. I’m not totally sold on his concept, but I don’t need to be. I’m in the learning phase of this reorientation. I can afford to try things, cast around for ideas. So, no porn, no video games, no skirt, no Netflix, no sweets, and no booze [6].

I don’t expect to remain straight edge forever- it’s an experiment. Since pulling away from Game last year I’ve already noticed my attention span zoom upwards. I went from a man who could barely focus for ten minutes, to a man who thinks nothing of reading a book a day (this year, my rolling average is 1-book-in-2-days). It’s been three weeks since I played a video game. Two weeks since I watched porn (a month since watching one I hadn’t filmed myself). I can’t remember last time I binged a few episodes of a Netflix serial.

I’m more content than I expected.

Already, my brain feels different. Less angsty for stimulation. I remember a few years ago I was constantly yearning for something to do. Usually I’d find it by walking the streets. I’d already come to realise how sex-obsessed I’d been. Hormonally, ideologically. As a player, every year turned the dial a little further towards Sex Is Everything. I had built an entire ideological system to justify and encourage it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I wanted to clack skirt- needed to- and it massively improved my life. Nonetheless, that lifestyle has side effects. They creep up on you slowly, like boiling a frog. Now I’m trying to throw out the bathwater without also throwing out the baby.

So, that’s one of the things I’ve been ruminating on lately.

If you think all that is gay bollocks and would much rather just shag birds, consider my textbook Daygame Mastery (available on Amazon) and my instructional video Daygame Overkill.

[1] Oh yes he was!
[2] There are still many active players who are writing Player’s Journey blogs, including a bunch of my friends who I can verify as legitimate voices. Many of them are linked here.
[3] Which, I’ll admit, can be a little wearing on my companions.
[4] Or, if you’re Irish, the pub.
[5] Assuming you actually catch some of the skirt, that is.
[6] Maybe the occasional rum on ice, but don’t tell anyone.