Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Burdian's Ass | Bullying | Getting Where You Need to Be in Your Career | Struggling With Friendships

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Burdian's Ass: If you place a donkey equidistant from water and food who is equally hungry and thirsty, he will die of both hunger and thirst.Dealing with bullies.Struggling to improve friendships.Dealing with a cocky co-worker openly gunning for your job.Getting where you need to be in your career.Training on days you don't feel like it.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko Underground Podcast number 59. With Echo Charles and me, Jocco Willink, sitting here with another theory to think about. Got a theory for you to think about one to be aware of. These theories are good to be aware of. When you're aware of things, you become so much more powerful in defending against them. Let me just think about it. If you know what an arm lock is, you can defend the arm lock. If you don't know what the arm lock is, you don't even know where to start.

Okay. So here's a theory. It's called Birdian's ass. Whose theory is this? It's a theory. Okay. All right. It is a philosophical paradox related to decision making.

It's named after this French philosopher, Gene Birdian. It actually kind of makes fun of Gene Birdian, and I won't go into the whole history behind that because this guy is somebody that was born in 1301. So this guy's, he's pretty ancient philosopher. But so here's the paradox. And I guess he was a guy that talked about this type of free will and whatnot. But here's the paradox. If you place a donkey, an ass.

If you place a donkey that is equally hungry and thirsty. And you place him an equal distance between. water and food he's going to die of both hunger and thirst because he can't make a rational decision between going to the hay or going to the water all right so it's something very good to be aware of because this can happen to us this can lead to paralysis we get stuck in these situations where it's like well that seems pretty good but this seems pretty good too we just don't make a decision or I want this but I also want that so I'm just not going to do anything so it is a good time to

employ the law of combat prioritized and execute right I mean in this case guess what you can live for 30 days without food you can only live three hour a three you can live for 30 days without food you can only live for through three days without water so you better go get the water first that's your prioritized next cute model no factor also can be a good time to employ some iterative decision making like like oh maybe I'll take a little step in this direction do it soon oh yeah that makes sense I'm still thirsty I can survive a little bit longer without food, but I need water for sure.

So take some small steps in that direction. But oftentimes we go through life and sometimes we act like a jackass. We don't make decisions. We don't make decisions. We don't choose a course. And listen, I say, and I don't know when I started saying this, but I've been saying it, I'm kind of sticking with it right now. In my opinion, seven out of ten times, seven deep,

of the time action is better than inaction. Except, look, there's three times where, you know what, you got to hesitate. You got to hold back. You got to wait. But most of the time, action is better. And the reason it's better is because when you take action, you get to see a different perspective. You get a reaction. Your knowledge grows.

You learn. You can learn by sitting and waiting occasionally. That's why it's only three out of ten, bro. It's only three out of ten. in action has a possibility of giving you nothing. Like you sit and wait, you don't change your viewpoint. You don't change your perspective. You've seen the same thing that you saw before.

So there's a chance that in action, you get nothing from it. There's a small chance that if I sit here and wait, and I see what Echo's going to do. Now I see what he's doing. Okay, now I can. There's a chance. But there's also a chance that I don't get to see anything new. Whereas if I maneuver, take a step, take some action.

I'm going to get to see more. I'm going to learn. So bottom line is Don't be a jackass Don't be a jackass Take some action Don't get stuck, don't sit there and analyze all day long Because it's going to be a problem

So there you go Little theory, little theory from the past From Birdian's ass Do you ever get that feeling? I don't know I didn't even think about that I should have thought of it a personal example of that of me

I think for I think for me it might be I want this but I also want that like at the same time which is what the donkey's doing right the donkey wants water and it wants hay so yeah sometimes you're like oh I want this but I also want that which one should I get yeah and I'm and I wait and argue about it in my own

head yeah so don't do that yeah that's no it feels like this is something different though right feels like it's different than what than just one you know like if you want some let's say it's like buying something it's kind of like That's a common thing where it's like yeah of course you want both you probably want 10 other things as well But these are just the two things that you're considering and then you're like wait But I only want to spend a certain amount of money which you can only afford me one of these things

I'm sure that's like a common thing well Not like this philosophical well here's a thing you want to buy that property and you want to buy this property and you're like debating and all of a sudden Property goes up on the prices go up on both oh right yeah and now you're being indecisive oh yeah, yeah So that's where it applies or hey I really want to I I really want to apply for this job, but I like, oh, which one should I apply for? Oh, I didn't apply for either one because I was debating and guess what? Now both jobs are filled. So there's a bunch of examples where this happens in real life.

So like, let's say you're walking in the movie theater and then you're like, hey, like, if I sit over there, I'll be around way less people. But then if I sit over there, I'll have like the perfect view, but I'll be next to these people. But I'm going to have the perfect view. It's like right in the center. Yeah. You know, kind of thing. And you're like, shoot, should I? Let me see. Oh, wait. There's more people sitting over there a little bit.

So maybe this one seems better now. Oh, shoot. Oh, now everyone's out there. Everyone's filled. And you missed it. Yeah, that's my turmoil. I can see. That's your, your Vietnam. Actually, to quote Theo Von. You want to actually here's the worst one.

Here's the worst one you ever heard. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. So today, it was today. I was doing, actually, sorry, not today, yesterday. Dead lifts after squats. Do you do deadlift after squats? No.

How do you split that? Deadless on a totally different day. Okay. So I do deadlift after squats. So I take the squat, the weights. That's very revealing. Yeah. As to like your effort level on your squats.

No, my dead lifts. And your deadlifts. Yeah. Just the deadlifts. My effort on deadless is less than squats. What's the debate? In my head. So I take the weights from the squat rack when I'm done to,

and I start to load them on the deadlift. It's a different separate bar. So when I load one plate on, you know, one plate at a time, right? So I got two, one plate on each side. So the second plate, when I walk it from the squat rack to the deadlift area or whatever, like I can't decide which side I should put it. This is weird. Because if I walk it to the far side, I'm calculating weight.

So it depends on which side I grab it from the squat rack. So if I grab it from the far side of the squat rack, should I walk it all the way there, that I'm done with it, and then it'll contribute to the recovery I have from, you know, as far as the time perspective. Or should I just go nuts to nuts, go far side to near side, near side to far side to even it up? You see what I'm saying? So I don't know where to put it just for a little bit.

Yeah. I think the part of the theory that applies to this is the part that's called jackass. Because none of that matters. That's real jackassie. Yeah. You're just like, you need to do something else like with your mind. It's real. Because that's just horrible.

But when you said that, that's the first thing I thought of. I was like, yeah, Bradley, it's real. Because like, and that's kind of why at first I didn't think that your example was because that's like common. That's like, yeah, no kidding. Like you're going to be indecisive because both provide benefits. Like that's common. That doesn't deserve a theory almost. That's how it feels.

I don't know. I'm not a philosopher. Yeah. But let's not get trapped. Let's not be a jackass. There's no butt here. But sometimes there's like unreasonable. this will apply or this will pop up in your head in an unreasonable way like it does with me sometimes.

Apparently. So that's why it deserves like a theory. That's what it felt like the whole system worked. But either way, it applies to, I think it applies to everything. No matter what. Yeah. Okay. First question.

Let's get to the questions, bro. I'm 18 years old. You can add it out everything you just said. Do yourself a favor. That's real. I'm sure there's other people out there. Remember, I told you. There's no one else out there.

No, no, no. I told you freaking about the, and I think it's the same. thing when I was unloading the dishwasher and over on this side of the kitchen you know my kitchen's like long it goes long the long way or whatever so the plates and bowls and silverware is on this side of the kitchen and the pots and pans are literally on the opposite side rearrange your kitchen bro no no no no no it's not worth it nonetheless that's not the point so the point is I see everything I'm like shoot pots and pans and then plates and bowls and stuff and silver

is all in there, right? So I was like, shoot, which one do I do first? Because this one's slightly closer. But if I do this one over here, they'll be done. Then all I got is the close stuff left. And it's kind of like that thing, you know? So I'm like super indecisive. So I'm wasting time seconds, mere seconds,

but I'm still wasting seconds. So I'm trying to make these decisions. You know what I'm saying? It's the same concept. Yep. The concept is jackass. All right. This applies to different people in different ways.

I am 18 years old. Seven months ago, I defended one of my friends. that was getting bullied at school, standing up to him kind of aggressively. After that episode, all the friends of the bully started to pick on me and kind of bully me in group. They turned a lot of people against me in, or they turned a lot of people against me, and in the last days of school,

they have a lot of friends, and every time I go out, I meet someone that stares at me. I have a huge amount of people against me, and I don't know how to act. Being in a constant state of awareness and trying to spot all the opposite or all the possible threats is really stressful. I'm trying to I'm trying meditation and stoicism but they don't seem to work that much.

It's been a long time of bullying and doesn't seem to seem to stop. What's your what's your advice? Well first of all make sure you're training jiu jitsu. Maybe some boxing boy tie wrestling and look that's not why why is that is that because I want you go fight everybody? No, but just in case you have to you want to be effective. So train some jiu-jitsu, train some boxing, train some Muay, train some wrestling, make sure you know how to defend yourself. The way you behave when you know how to defend yourself will be deterrent to the bullies because bullies the last thing they want to do is get beat up by someone that they're bullying and when you know how to fight

people can sense that and you can you can fake it, but it's hard to fake So train Jiu-Jitsu number one. Also, okay, so a couple of things. Hang out with your friends, right? Don't don't like be alone if you think there might be some violence So hang out with your friends stay with your crew, but listen this is important don't be purposefully Confrontational right because you get your pack of friends and now you're eye in them and they're eye on you You're not looking we're not looking to affront anybody we're not looking to antagonize any We're looking to mind our own business and let them forget about us. That's what we're doing. We're just trying to keep our head, keep our head down and move on and carry on.

And that's what we're doing. As far as how we're individually, you know, you asked, you're not sure how to act. It's the same thing. You act confident, but you're not offensive. If you're not walking around with your chest out, you're not walking around like you're a badass, not making a spectacle of yourself. You're just acting, doing what you would normally do. Oh, it's lunch time.

going to lunch, going to my class, doing whatever, going to the store, just being normal. And you know what? Be a little bit polite. Someone's staring at you. Hey, what's up, man? You know, maybe give him a head nod. Maybe you don't even want to verbalize anything because that can escalate. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast.

So if you want to continue to listen, go to jaco underground.com and subscribe. and we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms so we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors.

And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interactive. more direct connections better communications with us and to do that we are we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us so thank you it's jocco underground dot com it costs eight dollars and eighteen cents a month and if you can't afford to support us we can still support you just email assistance at jocco underground and we'll get you taken care of until then we will see you mobilized underground