Lexicon ·
outcome independence
noun
- Stated meaning
- Not caring whether a given approach succeeds, so that the result has no hold on how one behaves.
- Operating meaning
- Indifference to a result, cultivated on purpose in order to produce that result.
- Origin
- Men's coaching vocabulary, in use online by about 2012. The pickup newsgroup alt.seduction.fast had the instruction by 2005, as "become detached from the outcome", and never the noun.
In September 2005 a poster on alt.seduction.fast (opens in a new window) quoted the instruction in its earlier form: “become detached from the outcome. Get your emotions to a state where if she says yes, or no, you’re ok with the answer.” The noun arrived with the coaching sites. By about 2012 one of them (opens in a new window) called not being outcome dependent “one of the most commonly discussed concepts in dating.”
The current definitions state the goal and the method in consecutive sentences. One coaching site (opens in a new window) defines it as distancing “yourself emotionally from any specific outcome,” and gives the program as “Go for what you want by taking massive action. Distance yourself from the outcome.” Its headline names the outcome the distance is for. Another (opens in a new window) files it under one heading with abundance mindset, so that the indifference comes with a supply of alternatives to be indifferent among.
Under load, outcome independence is indifference held as an instrument. It is acquired for what it is said to produce, and its value is measured by whether the result arrives, which is the one figure its holder is told to stop reading. A holder who has truly achieved it has no way to check, because checking is the dependence. The ones who can report that it works are the ones still keeping count.