I agree about mix reports. While I have found some to be interesting food for thought, they are prone to be too individual (at least for my personal phero signature) and likely to increase bandwagon effects/reports.
While I do report my mixes (otherwise I might as well be talking cookie recipes), I’m more interested in methodology to improve both reports and personal investigations. Unfortunately, this takes time. Next week will be the first anniversary of my return to pheros after many years (I began with another vendor), and I feel like I’ve barely established a proper baseline for observations/reactions. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to explore the dozens of AD putatives in some people’s kits. I expect it to go faster now that I have the baselines and will be exploring more mixes in more settings, but I’m just not inclined to jump to conclusions based on 1-3 tests [though hit reports are always fun to read]
With that out of the way, let’s handle some of the backlog from July/Aug.
RATIOS
I’m not sure what to make of reports involving varying ratios of IO+IH. According to the official thread, IO is 70% alpha Androstenol + 30% beta Androstenol, while IH is the opposite ratio, so 1xIO+1xIH = 2xCTTM which is 50/50 alpha/beta (see Chapter 2) but didn’t get the same raves. Further, mixing 30/70 and 70/30 will only yield micro-fine tuning (reverse the ratios below for IH/IO)
- 1:1 IO/IH =50/50 alpha/beta Androstenol ratio
- 3:2 IO/IH =54/46 alpha/beta Androstenol ratio
- 2:1 IO/IH =56.7/43.3 alpha/beta Androstenol ratio
- 3:1 IO/IH =60/40 alpha/beta Androstenol ratio
I don’t imagine too many folks are going past 3:1 (4 sprays total) before adding the rest of their mix. Maybe adjusting a mix by a few percent really does make a difference, but that could only be highly individual and any benefit would be diluted by the environment (not just your pheros, but those around you, air movement, temperature, humidity etc.)
I mention this, not to criticize, but to help others decide what experiments are worth doing. After the above analysis, I decided not to focus on ratios as much in pre-mixed sprays. With unmixed putatives (100% single ingredient), 1:3 vs 3:1 = 25/75 vs 75/25 (a broad range) but with IO/IH, you’d only be hitting 50% +/-10%
PHEROS ARE SIMILAR TO SMELL, WHICH IS KEY TO TASTE
I could counter-argue that pheros share a great deal with smell and taste, where small adjustments make a big difference, but I don’t think that’s a good analogy. Our cuisine became more precise as grew able to control the cooking/serving environment more precisely (You could use the same spice rub as a barbeque master and still never approach his results, because he fine-tunes for every detail of the competition setting, including transient weather) Our situation, wearing pheros in the Wide World, seems more like adjusting the percentages of flowers in a garden to improve the fragrance in the breeze. Good luck dealing with changing local conditions! Me, I’d rather try new flowers vs fine-tuning the ratios.
I do think that cooking is a good analogy in other ways. Too little salt makes a dish bland but too much makes it inedible. People vary widely in preferences, and different dishes have different needs. The salty shock that is delicious in vinegar potato chips would ruin scrambled eggs. I’ve read a few reports by people who aren’t really into science and math (which is fine) but we have many concrete examples in daily life (including mixing concrete itself) that may help them design their tests.
- Details matter, but solid fundamentals matter MUCH more
- de gustibus non est disputandum (there’s no arguing personal taste)
- Using the same golf clubs won’t make you the equal of Tiger Woods
- Presentation can greatly affect how a dish is enjoyed
- A few good ingredients, simply but expertly prepared, can be a great dish. Sometimes adding more ingredients isn’t worth it
- etc.
All I’m saying is: don’t let the stuff you don’t understand mystify you. You know everything you need to craft great tests, if you think it through.
For example, though I’ve been working with fairly conventional mixes, I think 4 ingredients is a bit much (especially when each ingredient is itself a mix). In September/October I’ll be looking at simpler bases (for different situations), so I can better observe/explore how various P/MX sprays steer them. If you want to learn what a molecule can teach you, you have to be able to hear it. Giving a professor a podium can showcase his strengths or weaknesses, but not if he has to wrestle with complex AV controls!
Getting long again. More later