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I've had a few people ask me about Friendship Framing and how it works so I thought I'd do a few write ups on it to help people out that I've seen struggling with a few things as well as organize my own thoughts.
I've met a few guys since I've been back in the States and we've gone out and done some approaching together and I wanted to talk about this idea of Direct Vs Indirect because I've seen a lot of guys struggling and it's something I've struggled with before and I think this might help you out a lot.
What Is Direct Vs Indirect?
The mistake I see is this idea that you should always go direct. I'm sure this has been talked about and probably argued about in this forum over the years but I wanted to give my take on it since I'm still seeing just about every guy I meet go direct on just about every approach.
If you're not familiar with the term, direct has been used in a few different ways before. On the approach, it generally means that you're expressing your sexual/romantic interest up front.
You're verbally or non-verbally expressing it.
To speak to @Baron and his question about Mode 1, if you approached in an indirect way, made fluff talk or whatever for 5 minutes to find her availability, and then went into sexual direct, most would probably consider this an indirect approach followed by switching into sexual direct. We could get bogged down in the terms and shit but I don't think that's overly useful.
There are a bunch of other terms here like implied direct (you aren't using a direct opener but she probably is assuming you're talking to her because you want to date/fuck her).
With direct, you see this with guys walking up and saying, "I was over there and I saw you and I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't meet you" or "I wanted to talk to you because I think you're beautiful" or whatever other direct line that 99% of all guys who do direct approach use to ad nauseum while pretending they're "being themselves" right before they go into asking her 20 questions and trying to convince her to do all the work to hold the conversation she never wanted to get into in the first place.
This has been framed in the community as "man game" and "hyper masculine" or whatever... and don't get me wrong, it can be powerful. I've used it effectively. I know guys who are really good who basically only do direct, and most guys can probably do this well if their fundamentals are locked down.
Why Do Anything Other Than Direct on the Approach?
"So why then, Vision, would I want to do anything else if this can work and it makes me feel like a man?"
Well, hypothetical strawman that I use to counterbalance my conversations, that's a good question. And the answer is in this little thing we call, "Calibration."
There are some situations where you almost always need to go direct... like if you don't have a lot of time or a girl is in a clear hurry or it's some kind of weird situation where indirect just doesn't make any sense... by all means, go direct. Also, direct is often a better way to go when you're in bars and clubs because it's often more natural and makes sense.
Or if the girl you're talking to is giving you AIs or going direct works for you a good portion of the time or you're talking to girls who have a lower SMV than you (I know there's an argument out there that all women have a higher SMV than all men but I think that's silly).
HOWEVER...
If you're doing direct all the time and it's not leading to numbers, dates, and sex with women, you may want to change up your approach.
You see, with direct, you often put a woman in a position to make a snap judgment about you... that's why you'll hear boyfriend objections even if she doesn't have one.
She has to decide, "should I let this man who has a clear romantic/sexual interest in me, continue talking to me?" And if she doesn't feel it in that moment, she may often reject you outright without giving you a chance to display how cool you are, how much she would like you, or how big your ding dong is.
What About the Indirect Approach?
Indirect on the approach is when you're not communicating that you're sexually/romantically interested in her on the approach... for instance, if you walk up and ask a woman what time it is, looking to get into a different conversation, that would be indirect.
Or making a comment on, teasing her about, or asking her about a piece of clothing she's wearing... or asking an opinion on something... or anything else where it's made clear that you could be saying this to someone else and not her... or it's NOT clear that you're talking to her because of romantic interest, we'd mostly consider this indirect (or sometimes implied direct, depending on the person's definition).
Why would you want to go indirect?
The biggest reason is that indirect gives you time. She doesn't have to make a snap judgment about whether to reject you right off the bat.
You delay the rejection so that you can connect with her in a way that makes her want to talk to you more until she's attracted, hooked, or interested in continuing the conversation.
There are a bunch of arguments about indirect not being as manly or being sneaky or being about hiding your intentions or whatever.
But we're just talking about the approach right now... the reality is that most game and most guys I see who are getting laid by hotsies consistently aren't doing one technique or the other.
Sometimes I've seen straight "horny guy game" or "sneaky fucker game" but most of the time, game isn't as polarized as being indirect or direct, when I've seen it be the most consistently effective.
Most of the good guys that I see are calibrated, which means that they change their method up depending on the situation that they're in.
They go direct when it makes sense and they go indirect when it makes sense. They change what they're doing to fit the situation, pull back when it makes sense, push forward when it makes sense, give her time when he thinks she needs it, spikes her emotions when she needs it, calms things down when he thinks she needs it.
Sometimes this is done consciously but often it's just done instinctually based on their emotional and social intelligence that they've developed.
So you may be asking yourself, "Okay, so wtf are you even talking about Vision? How is this going to help me get my dick wet?"
Alright, geez... that brings us to...
Friendship Framing
Friendship Framing is further down the extreme side of indirect type of game. The reason I bring this up at all and wanted to talk about it is that I see so many guys in the push push push mindset that I thought I'd bring a little bit of balance to your world.
It's a calibration technique that you can use to not only delay rejection but to also take a girl's game away from her if she tries to friendzone you.
The incident that originally brought this up was when this girl in Ukraine I met who said something about being friends on the first meet. And instead of fighting it, I agreed and amplified it... taking her game away and creating uncertainty around my intentions.
The cool thing about the friendzone is that you can often get away with a lot of things that women often wouldn't do in a romantic scenario. Ukraine is notorious for women making guys pay for expensive things, making guys take them on expensive dates, waiting until several dates in to even allow themselves to go to a guy's place, etc.
In fact, after we started seeing each other for the very brief amount of time that we did, that's what that girl told me she normally makes guys do... she said she strings guys along for months normally.
But with me, she showed up at my place for a day 2 with home made dinner. Red borscht in fact, and it was delicious! I mean, there was still a little bit of bone in it, which is annoying, but nobody's perfect.
Then by the time it became clear that I was interested in a sexual relationship, she was already so hooked on me that it didn't matter how direct I was anymore or whether that frame was there, she wanted it to happen too.
The point is...
It's not always best to go direct.
IMO, I think it's best to use a calibrated approach to the situation instead of being dogmatic about anything.
If you think this is interesting and you want to hear more about friendship framing and building attraction inside of it, let me know and I'll write another post about it.
If you think friendship framing is morally and ethically fucked because I'm not being totally upfront about my intentions, I'd like to hear you out on that too.
I've met a few guys since I've been back in the States and we've gone out and done some approaching together and I wanted to talk about this idea of Direct Vs Indirect because I've seen a lot of guys struggling and it's something I've struggled with before and I think this might help you out a lot.
What Is Direct Vs Indirect?
The mistake I see is this idea that you should always go direct. I'm sure this has been talked about and probably argued about in this forum over the years but I wanted to give my take on it since I'm still seeing just about every guy I meet go direct on just about every approach.
If you're not familiar with the term, direct has been used in a few different ways before. On the approach, it generally means that you're expressing your sexual/romantic interest up front.
You're verbally or non-verbally expressing it.
To speak to @Baron and his question about Mode 1, if you approached in an indirect way, made fluff talk or whatever for 5 minutes to find her availability, and then went into sexual direct, most would probably consider this an indirect approach followed by switching into sexual direct. We could get bogged down in the terms and shit but I don't think that's overly useful.
There are a bunch of other terms here like implied direct (you aren't using a direct opener but she probably is assuming you're talking to her because you want to date/fuck her).
With direct, you see this with guys walking up and saying, "I was over there and I saw you and I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't meet you" or "I wanted to talk to you because I think you're beautiful" or whatever other direct line that 99% of all guys who do direct approach use to ad nauseum while pretending they're "being themselves" right before they go into asking her 20 questions and trying to convince her to do all the work to hold the conversation she never wanted to get into in the first place.
This has been framed in the community as "man game" and "hyper masculine" or whatever... and don't get me wrong, it can be powerful. I've used it effectively. I know guys who are really good who basically only do direct, and most guys can probably do this well if their fundamentals are locked down.
Why Do Anything Other Than Direct on the Approach?
"So why then, Vision, would I want to do anything else if this can work and it makes me feel like a man?"
Well, hypothetical strawman that I use to counterbalance my conversations, that's a good question. And the answer is in this little thing we call, "Calibration."
There are some situations where you almost always need to go direct... like if you don't have a lot of time or a girl is in a clear hurry or it's some kind of weird situation where indirect just doesn't make any sense... by all means, go direct. Also, direct is often a better way to go when you're in bars and clubs because it's often more natural and makes sense.
Or if the girl you're talking to is giving you AIs or going direct works for you a good portion of the time or you're talking to girls who have a lower SMV than you (I know there's an argument out there that all women have a higher SMV than all men but I think that's silly).
HOWEVER...
If you're doing direct all the time and it's not leading to numbers, dates, and sex with women, you may want to change up your approach.
You see, with direct, you often put a woman in a position to make a snap judgment about you... that's why you'll hear boyfriend objections even if she doesn't have one.
She has to decide, "should I let this man who has a clear romantic/sexual interest in me, continue talking to me?" And if she doesn't feel it in that moment, she may often reject you outright without giving you a chance to display how cool you are, how much she would like you, or how big your ding dong is.
What About the Indirect Approach?
Indirect on the approach is when you're not communicating that you're sexually/romantically interested in her on the approach... for instance, if you walk up and ask a woman what time it is, looking to get into a different conversation, that would be indirect.
Or making a comment on, teasing her about, or asking her about a piece of clothing she's wearing... or asking an opinion on something... or anything else where it's made clear that you could be saying this to someone else and not her... or it's NOT clear that you're talking to her because of romantic interest, we'd mostly consider this indirect (or sometimes implied direct, depending on the person's definition).
Why would you want to go indirect?
The biggest reason is that indirect gives you time. She doesn't have to make a snap judgment about whether to reject you right off the bat.
You delay the rejection so that you can connect with her in a way that makes her want to talk to you more until she's attracted, hooked, or interested in continuing the conversation.
There are a bunch of arguments about indirect not being as manly or being sneaky or being about hiding your intentions or whatever.
But we're just talking about the approach right now... the reality is that most game and most guys I see who are getting laid by hotsies consistently aren't doing one technique or the other.
Sometimes I've seen straight "horny guy game" or "sneaky fucker game" but most of the time, game isn't as polarized as being indirect or direct, when I've seen it be the most consistently effective.
Most of the good guys that I see are calibrated, which means that they change their method up depending on the situation that they're in.
They go direct when it makes sense and they go indirect when it makes sense. They change what they're doing to fit the situation, pull back when it makes sense, push forward when it makes sense, give her time when he thinks she needs it, spikes her emotions when she needs it, calms things down when he thinks she needs it.
Sometimes this is done consciously but often it's just done instinctually based on their emotional and social intelligence that they've developed.
So you may be asking yourself, "Okay, so wtf are you even talking about Vision? How is this going to help me get my dick wet?"
Alright, geez... that brings us to...
Friendship Framing
Friendship Framing is further down the extreme side of indirect type of game. The reason I bring this up at all and wanted to talk about it is that I see so many guys in the push push push mindset that I thought I'd bring a little bit of balance to your world.
It's a calibration technique that you can use to not only delay rejection but to also take a girl's game away from her if she tries to friendzone you.
The incident that originally brought this up was when this girl in Ukraine I met who said something about being friends on the first meet. And instead of fighting it, I agreed and amplified it... taking her game away and creating uncertainty around my intentions.
The cool thing about the friendzone is that you can often get away with a lot of things that women often wouldn't do in a romantic scenario. Ukraine is notorious for women making guys pay for expensive things, making guys take them on expensive dates, waiting until several dates in to even allow themselves to go to a guy's place, etc.
In fact, after we started seeing each other for the very brief amount of time that we did, that's what that girl told me she normally makes guys do... she said she strings guys along for months normally.
But with me, she showed up at my place for a day 2 with home made dinner. Red borscht in fact, and it was delicious! I mean, there was still a little bit of bone in it, which is annoying, but nobody's perfect.
Then by the time it became clear that I was interested in a sexual relationship, she was already so hooked on me that it didn't matter how direct I was anymore or whether that frame was there, she wanted it to happen too.
The point is...
It's not always best to go direct.
IMO, I think it's best to use a calibrated approach to the situation instead of being dogmatic about anything.
If you think this is interesting and you want to hear more about friendship framing and building attraction inside of it, let me know and I'll write another post about it.
If you think friendship framing is morally and ethically fucked because I'm not being totally upfront about my intentions, I'd like to hear you out on that too.
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