category: Learning

During my last Istanbul trip of 2026. I’ve settled on a Turkish language learning approach for this fall and winter. My goal is to have basic conversational Turkish that I can weave into my sets when I return to Istanbul in spring or early summer. I’ve learned other languages (including French and German) up to a high1 level of both spoken and written fluency. I learned both languages by complete immersion: living in said countries for over a year and using the language at work. In both cases, I managed to evolve from not being able to speak to speaking fluently (albeit with grammatical mistakes) in about six months. This however meant I was interacting with the language (reading emails, speaking to colleagues, ordering food) for well over 8 hours per day. ...

I’m somewhat of a nerd when it comes to tracking numbers… On Wednesday October 7th I opened my 2000th set. In Istanbul, of all places. Although this moment was much less impactful than hitting One Thousand Sets in Prague, I nevertheless felt accomplished. In that blog post, I wrote that my goal was to hit 2000 sets by the end of 2025. That didn’t quite happen. Nomadic travel, winter hibernation, and my new sales job had a big impact on my work rate. Still, I feel I’m doing enough sets to make progress. ...

I booked two residential coaching sessions with Nick. Five days in April 2024 and another two days in June 2026. Both in Prague. In the first session we focused on the non-verbal fundamentals of daygame: street presence, open and stops. Nick watched me open several sets and deduced a list of specific work items. He also did some demo sets that pushed my imagination of what I thought was possible on the street. Nick showed me that there are many different ways to open a set. I left home with a clear list of non-verbal points to drill. I also got laid with a tourist girl, which was nice. ...

I suppose I can call myself a daygamer now. Today I completed my 1000th set. As expected, there were no fireworks. Nor did the sets feel like the “1000 sets of hell”. Instead, I experienced a mild feeling of contentment and accomplishment: I set my mind to daygame, and I persisted for 562 days. Compared to Prague in April 2024 (300 sets), I feel the following changes: I still feel approach anxiety but manage to overcome it consistently. Girls no longer question my intent: they know I’m hitting on them. I’m only beginning to weave in actual Game into my sets (opposed to friendly chit-chat). Improved non-verbals: I’m standing close, touch them, and hold strong eye contact on green lights (when the girl gives good signals). Inner game issues: still too focused on impressing the girl (lack of entitlement). My goal is to reach 2000 sets by the end of 2025.

You know, the fascinating thing about daygame is that it puts me in contact with girls far outside my own social stratum. This week I closed1 an Italian girl who was a bit quiet. Very introverted. Not a “good girl”: she later confessed some extreme sexual adventures. She encountered some genuine tragedy in life (deaths of relatives, suicide, violence, etc.). I’ve had my issues but my life was a walk in the park compared to hers. I was so struck by how genuinely kind she was. She wasn’t acting either: she wasn’t trying to impress me and had already confessed the fucked up stuff. It felt like she experienced so much misery that she was tired of it all and just defaulted to being a good person. I don’t know. Meeting a girl like that left a deep impression on me. I don’t think I’m in the game to “bang lots of bitches”, at least not consciously, I think I crave a deep connection with the feminine. ...