Jocko Podcast - Standard Directive 016: Be Rational

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

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We have a saying in the military that the first report is always wrong. And the second and third and fourth and fifth versions might still be wrong. And that happens all the time in the civilian world as well. It happens with news reports a lot. even when those reports are trying to tell you the truth, when they're trying to tell you the truth, when there's no political agenda around what they're saying, it's a news report about a tornado or something like that,

the news outlets still get it wrong. They still get it wrong in their first reports. Because they simply are always wrong. First reports are always wrong. It's not because of their political, bias in those situations. It's a tornado. They're wrong because first reports are only one perspective, one reporter, or one cameraman, or one bystander that's being interviewed. And one person cannot see enough to know what has actually happened. Because that one person only sees what they

see and on top of that they're emotional and they have their own biases and they have adrenaline in their blood and they have tears in their eyes and anger in their voice and so their perspective is gonna be flawed so the first report is always wrong and you don't understand what happened until you get other perspectives and even then even then if you interview every person involved with an event you still only have an idea of what actually happened. You won't actually know what happened. So there's a lot going on in the world right now. And there always is a lot going on in the world. But right now,

it's particularly volatile. And this seems to transfer to people. When the world gets volatile, people get volatile too. These reports that come through the airwaves, can make you emotional. And by the way, they're meant to make you emotional. The news media wants you emotional because you will click more on their website. Different factions of the world want you to be more emotional because that means you're more likely to give them support.

But these emotions that have been generated or at least inflamed by misleading, reports, they do not help you. And they do not help the world. So don't let that happen. Take a step back, take a breath, try to see other perspectives, try to understand more, and don't let your emotions control how you behave. And I'm not saying don't have any emotions at all.

I'm saying be thoughtful, be balanced, and be rational.