# The Game by Neil Strauss

5 Hacker News commenters recommended The Game by Neil Strauss and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Praised as a detailed, insider account of the pickup scene and its mechanics, but critics call its tactics manipulative and misogynistic.

## What people warn about

- Manipulative tactics like negging and psych-ops (2 comments): "I bought The Game 10+ years ago and read 3/4 of it. I just can't get myself to do tactics like magic, negging, and psych-ops." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581901)) "I tried reading it, found it despicable (its basically everything we hate about manipulation in the attention economy,)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46607092))
- Misogynistic and deceptive toward women (2 comments): "these techniques are inherently antisocial, and when practiced at scale by men toward women, are misogynistic at the core" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50005970)) "It is about deceiving women to increase your value as a man." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49993682))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people.md): 67 recommend
- [Atomic Habits by James Clear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atomic-habits.md): 20 recommend
- [The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr](https://hackerapproved.com/p/easy-way-to-stop-smoking.md): 9 recommend
- [Feeling Good by David Burns](https://hackerapproved.com/p/feeling-good.md): 8 recommend
- [The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum](https://hackerapproved.com/p/art-of-money-getting.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062312979?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780062312976) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Game by Neil Strauss", https://hackerapproved.com/p/game/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).