Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Why Your Judgement and Decision Making is Bad

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

Understanding how to combat cognitive bias.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko underground podcast, number one, with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. So what is this podcast all about? That's the big question. So this is the underground podcast, obviously a little bit different than the regular Jocko podcast. And in order to listen to it, you got to be part of the movement, part of the Jocko movement which you can join by going to jocco underground.com and why are we doing this?

Why are we making this separate podcast? Well, there's a few reasons why we're doing it. We talked about it on the last jaco podcast where we covered the linguistics of the book 1984 and also some of the things that happened in the book 1984. But look, we want jocco podcast. to stay Jocko podcast and it will but at the same time we got to remember that there is There is censorship happening in the world right now Social media companies are doing it traditional media companies are doing it doing it

All these different platforms are doing it podcast platforms are doing it and we've been fine But there's there's absolutely a risk because these other platforms have control in fact the word de-platform is a word and people get de-platformed and it would be ignorant of us for us to not have some kind of contingency plan in case things get crazy and I don't anticipate him getting crazy but you know you don't go into combat hoping things get crazy you go into combat prepared for contingencies so that's what we're doing and another so so that's reason number one we don't want to have someone else in control of our fate. The other thing is we don't want to, we don't want to

have sponsors. And listen, we all know that we absolutely do talk about products that we make, products that we use and products that we own. But what's, what's different there is that means we can't be held hostage by someone saying, we'll cut off your funding, right? Because we don't want to be held hostage. So that's why we don't take other sponsors. And so that's what this is. We started this Jocko underground as a contingency in case things fall apart and it's costing some money to get set up. We have to invest in it, which is fine. Another reason is to get some kind of to strengthen the connections with people that are out there that are really in the game. And in the beginning, it was pretty easy.

But now we get overwhelmed with questions and topics and books to cover. And there's too much to sort through literally. We can't sort through it all. So this is a way to sort of weed out some of people that are just throwing spaghetti at the wall. You've heard that expression before? Yes. Yeah. Throw some spaghetti at wall and see what sticks.

Well, we're going to screen some of that spaghetti so that we can actually get the good, stuff and and and listen as I said jaco podcast is it's I want to keep it pure is that the right word pure yeah I think so I always think when someone puts on the jaco podcast they want to put on their headset they want to put in their earphones and they're they're ready for that thing and I want that thing to be there and I want it to continue to have that essence. But I also want to do other things. And I want to talk about other topics and tangential subjects.

Because a lot of tangential subjects that I see in the world, they help me understand things. And when you know the way broadly you see it in all things, and sometimes I want to talk about some of those other things, things like psychology and sociology and philosophy and things that help me understand life and leadership. human nature even better. And even though I'm not a, I'm not a sociologist, obviously. I'm not a psychologist, obviously. But I'm also not a historian either. And I talk about history all the time.

So I think we're okay to talk about these subjects. And also these podcasts might be longer or shorter. They might be more scripted or less scripted. They might be more casual or more formal. I might read less. I might read more. I don't really know, but I just want to keep learning myself. I want to keep passing on these lessons. I want to keep exploring. And in order to do that, you've got to have a little bit of leeway. So I think this podcast, the underground podcast, will have a little bit more leeway.

Move around a little bit. So if you want to listen to these underground podcasts, you go to jocko, you go to jaco underground.com. and you subscribe. And it costs money. It costs $8.18 a month. Which is probably a strange number you're thinking, but there's layers to it. Serious layers to that number. If you think you know what it means, let us know.

And listen, here's the deal. We also aren't looking to prohibit people from listening. We are. we are of the people and for the people. So if there's someone out there, then you can't afford $8.18 a month, that's fine. If you email assistance at jocco underground.com,

we will cook you up for free. But if you can't afford it to kick a little, then that's much appreciated. And that keeps us all free. So that's what we're doing. And with that, we're going to jump into the topic of the day. Is that right?

Yes. Topic of the day. Cognitive biases. And what's interesting is this something that we've brushed on numerous times, numerous times on the podcast. And just to, but we never explored it too deeply. What are cognitive biases? This is the Wikipedia definition, which makes it legitimate. systematic pattern of deviation from the norm or rationality in judgment.

So there's little mistakes, little tendencies that we have as human beings that shift our opinion or shift our judgment. They distort our perception a little bit. And they can make it harder for us to make good decisions. And that's the key point. And not only can make it hard for us. to make good decisions. If you understand them, you could understand that someone that you're dealing with is also perceiving things through these cognitive biases.

And so you need to learn how to identify them in yourself and you need to learn how to identify them in other people. So there's different kinds. Some are belief, decision making, and behavioral. Some are social biases. and there's also memory biases, like the way you remember things. There's a pattern to the way people remember things.

I found a cool list of these things on a website called the visual capitalist.com. It's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. It's just a list. I just wanted something to sort of, as a little guide to talk about these things. I don't think they're in any particular order, but they're interesting.

And what's interesting about them, it's have you ever seen the movie echo charles the six cents yes sir so what's interesting about the six cents is it all when you see it when you get to the end and you realize what you just watched and it all makes sense that's kind of the feeling that i get when you read about cognitive biases because you go oh yeah yeah oh yeah i see that i see it now so it's good to it's good to kind of know the end of the movie in this case yes let's talk about some of these fund Attribution error. We judge others on their personality or fundamental character, but we judge ourselves on the situation Right and the the they give this what I liked about this website. They give these nice little examples

The example is Sally is late to class. She's lazy You're late to class. It's because you had a bad morning all right. It's the traffic's whatever right? I And that's very typical. And this is something that you really do need to think about. And this is something people do all the time, all the time, is, oh, echoes late. It's because he's lazy. It's because he doesn't time manage very well. But if I'm late, it's because I've got a legitimate excuse.

We do that all the time. Do that all the time. Horrible habit to get into. Horrible habit to get into. I like to go strong in the other. direction. I go strong in the, I go strong in the opposite direction.

In both cases. So if I'm late, I know that I was lazy and bad. That's my attitude. And if you're late, I figure there's some legitimate problem. Every single time. Every single time. Like, hey, there's something going on. Echo must have a flat tire or whatever.

Right. So I go strong in the other direction on both. And I think it's, so if you want to continue to listen to this podcast, go to jocco underground.com and follow the instructions and subscribe. It does cost money. $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford it, email assistance at jaco underground.com.

And we will hook you up for free. But either way, your support is appreciated. We'll see you in the underground.