Owen Cook (Tyler Durden): RSD's best-known coach
Owen Cook is the co-founder of Real Social Dynamics (RSD) who, for most of his public career, went by one name: Tyler Durden. If you've watched pickup videos or read The Game, you've seen him under that name.
Who he is
According to Global News, Cook is Canadian. He was born in Ottawa, studied at Queen's University, and was 35 in November 2014. He co-founded RSD with Nick Kho, who went by "Papa" (the business side of that partnership is covered here). Sources disagree on whether that happened in 2002 or 2003. The company was based in Los Angeles.
Cook and Kho both appear in Neil Strauss's The Game (2005). Wikipedia's summary of the book says they lived at Project Hollywood, the shared mansion at the center of the story, with Strauss, Mystery, and others, and that they went on to lead Real Social Dynamics. The full background is in Neil Strauss and The Game.
What RSD taught
An archived Wikipedia entry from the mid-2000s describes what the company offered. Topics included approaching women, creating attraction, building comfort and rapport, body language, and fashion and style. The same entry says Tyler presented "his beliefs and concepts for having success with women" at RSD's superconferences, which were larger seminars held in different cities.
The main product was the in-field bootcamp:
- Several days long, usually three.
- Classroom theory first, then live fieldwork in bars, clubs, and coffee shops.
- Coaches watched you approach and gave feedback on the spot.
That format is what RSD is best known for. The bootcamp put an instructor next to you while you did the thing. The full model is explained in Real Social Dynamics and the rise of the pickup bootcamp.
Where Cook sits in the timeline
| Period | What was happening |
|---|---|
| Early 2000s | RSD founded in Los Angeles by Cook and Kho |
| 2005 | The Game introduces both founders to a mainstream audience |
| Mid to late 2000s | Bootcamps, DVD sets, and seminars run in the US and abroad |
| 2014 | Public controversy around RSD, including Cook's own video |
For the wider picture, see a short history of the pickup community.
Documented events
Two things from 2014 are part of Cook's public record.
In November 2014, Global News reported on an undated RSD seminar video in which Cook described a sexual encounter with a woman who he said wasn't in the mood. Activist Jennifer Li, who had led the campaign against RSD instructor Julien Blanc, described the account as an admission of assault. According to Global News, Cook did not respond to interview requests, and the video was removed from YouTube.
The same month, Blanc, an RSD instructor, had his Australian visa cancelled and was refused a UK visa. The details are in Julien Blanc and the visa bans.
What to take from Cook
Whatever you think of the company, the bootcamp structure is something you can copy for free. Here's a version that fits into one weekend.
- Book one two-hour block. Pick the day, place, and start time ahead of time. "Saturday, 2 to 4 p.m., the farmers market" works.
- Go with one person. Agree that each of you will start at least five conversations, and that your partner watches and gives honest feedback.
- Split the theory from the practice. Spend 15 minutes beforehand picking one skill (say, a louder voice, or a relaxed open posture), then use only that skill on your approaches.
- Debrief within 10 minutes of finishing. Each person names one thing that went well and one thing to change next time.
- Log every approach in Flow. Mark each one Success, Rejected, or Pass. Only successes and rejections count as approaches. The log shows you whether five a session is becoming normal.
- Rotate the topic weekly. RSD's own list gives you a rotation: approaching, building rapport, body language, style. One per week, four weeks.
A no, a step back, or "I'm good, thanks" means you stop and wish her a good day. That applies on every approach.