SlutCon
5 hours ago
- A 26-year-old lawyer from New Zealand, using pseudonym Overlocked, attends SlutCon, a three-day retreat in Berkeley aimed at improving men's seduction skills, as a compensated 'flirt girl'.
- The event is hosted by Lighthaven, a venue operated by Lightcone Infrastructure, closely linked to the 'rationalism' subculture, which emphasizes cognitive bias avoidance and Bayesian reasoning, particularly active in Silicon Valley.
- SlutCon's philosophy is to help men better seduce women through candid feedback and practice, with participants wearing wristbands for approachability and flirt girls offering gentle corrections to avoid 'crushing their spirit'.
- Tickets cost between $3,300 and $18,000, with higher tiers offering workshops and personalized feedback; attendees are predominantly white, awkward, and rationalist-adjacent, with a mix of flirt girls from various backgrounds.
- Panels focus on making attraction more calculable, such as 'Get Sexier' discussing physical traits like canthal tilt and BMI, and 'Rizz Under Uncertainty' framing rejection as data rather than personal failure.
- The author feels safe but notes instances of entitlement, like a comment about shooters and defensive reactions to feedback; she appreciates the direct communication style, contrasting it with her usual guardedness as a lawyer.
- She discovers a neurodivergent theme, with many attendees and herself being autistic, leading to a sense of community and shared experiences of alienation, yet she remains emotionally distant throughout the weekend.
- The author critiques the event's attempt to sanitize attraction through measurement, arguing that real connection requires vulnerability and inefficiency, as seen in the tenderness among flirt girls behind the scenes.
- She reflects on her own guardedness, realizing she avoided being 'solved' due to fear, finding irony in the event's goal of connection while she protected herself.
- Comments applaud the article's insight, drawing parallels to autism training for children, suggesting nervous system calming could be more effective than behavior training, and noting Aella's in-person humility.