Jocko Underground: Are You an Introvert, Extrovert, Ambivert, or Omnivert?

Are You an Introvert, Extrovert, Ambivert, or Omnivert?. Advice on how to start a business. Dealing with Disrespect for my time. Finding time in a busy schedule. Work as an addiction. White belts trying to get the most out of Jiu Jitsu and lazy training partners. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 53, sitting here with Echo Charles EC, already having a rough morning over there on your side.

• 0:10Jocko Willink?

  Doing great. Been a rough morning for you. I mean, you've been here for seven minutes. It hasn't been pleasant for you. I'm doing the best I can. Okay, so you're still keeping a positive attitude. It's interesting that the way the world works, right? Everybody, everybody's allegedly different, right? Everyone's a different person. And yet, there's all these categories that you can put people in. And somebody asked me about this the other day, the whole introvert extrovert thing. It's a thing, right? Which is interesting that you can say that these radically different individualistic human beings, they all can be put in these categories.

• 0:48Jocko Willink?

  So, introvert is a person, and this is from WebMD.com, I'm citing my sources. Sure, yeah. Introvert is a person with a qualities of a personality type known as introversion, which means they feel more comfortable focusing on their inner thoughts and ideas, rather than what's happening externally. They enjoy spending time with just one or two people, rather than large groups or crowds. They have a list of things here. Need quiet to concentrate, are reflective, are self-aware, take time making decisions, feel comfortable being alone, don't like group work, prefer to write rather than talk, feel tired after being in a crowd,

• 1:28Jocko Willink?

  have few friendships but are very close with these friends, daydream or use their imaginations to work out a problem, retreat into their own mind to rest. Where are you at? Is that you? That's all the main two that I heard, as far as the differentiators between introvert extrovert. Actually, because I did hear on one hand where it's like, oh yeah, that's not real or whatever, and then... What's not real? Introvert versus extrovert, but I didn't...

• 1:54Speaker 01

  I put it so I didn't like, I wasn't like convinced, put it that way. I thought, I thought there really seems like there is such thing as introvert because you know, you can just think of your friend.

• 2:03Jocko Willink?

  Well, there's two more we're gonna get to, we're gonna get to two more, one's an omnivert and one's an ambivert. We're gonna get to them in a second. So the other facets rolling in here.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, but the ones, the, the two defining characteristic, whatever for introvert. And it's gonna be opposite for extrovert is the feel tired after being in a crowd.

• 2:22Jocko Willink?

  Is that you?

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Oh, me, um.

• 2:26Jocko Willink?

  Wait, why are you signaling that one out?

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Because that's what I heard as far as the actual definition. It has to do with like people, you know, like you can be an introvert and still do well with crowds and talk good and you know, like all this stuff in public speaking and all this stuff. It's draining, it takes energy and then other people in it, but extrovert apparently from what I heard is they feel they're the opposite. When they're alone, they get like, this is like too much to be alone. I gotta get out and have like people interaction.

• 2:55Jocko Willink?

  I'm real weird because I don't care. I'll be alone and not care, but to be totally stoked, whatever, sitting there, playing guitar, writing a book. Just doing anything alone, I'm fine, don't care.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  Yes, you are weird.

• 3:10Jocko Willink?

  Or I can be with people hanging out and I'm fine. I'm not, it doesn't use energy or anything like that. Now, look, you take that to the extreme sometimes, you can be like, alright, I, I guess maybe this leads me towards introvert a little bit, but you take it to an extreme where you had a thing and there's a bunch of people. Then you really don't want to be around a bunch of people. So I guess that's a little bit of, it makes me a little bit of a, of an introvert a little bit more, but I actually, but I actually don't care.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I guess, I don't know. I mean, if this is tech, like a technical thing.

• 3:46Jocko Willink?

  Actually, as I'm reading this, I'm, okay, let me go extrovert. Alright, what was the technical thing? Cause I cut you off.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Not well, the, as far as the technical thing, like if it's, you know, like you can be like. You know, you can be in condition for certain things. Like, oh, I mean, I'm kind of in shape for this, therefore it's not a factor. Running a marathon is not a factor for me. But let's face it, I'd rather do sprints or something like this, right? Or whatever. So you might be kind of like that, where you can endure a lot of extrovert activity, but at the end of the day, you're an actual introvert. You're just in shape for the extrovert stuff.

• 4:20Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, that might be right. Extrovert, here's a personality trait typically characterized by outgoingness, high energy, or talkativeness. In general, the term... It's so funny, because I literally talk for a living. And if you, if you, you know, if my wife and I go to a party where I don't know people, I'm not saying anything to anybody. We're not talking to anybody. Oh, she can, but I'm like, hi.

• 4:49Jocko Willink?

  So it says, in general, the term refers to a state of being where someone recharges or draws energy from being with other people.

• 4:57Jocko Willink?

  Here's, here's some, some highlights. You enjoy social settings. You don't like or need a lot of alone time. You thrive around people. You're friends with many people. You prefer to talk out problems or questions. You're outgoing and optimistic. You aren't afraid to take risks and you're flexible. That's from Psychology Today, by the way, those two definitions. So the weird thing for me is I'm, I am super flexible.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:19Jocko Willink?

  And I don't, and I take risks with almost, I take risks very easily. I have no problem taking risks.

• 5:28Jocko Willink?

  I do talk through problems, but I actually, I actually usually think through problems and I let other people talk about them and I kind of solve problems by listening to other people talk. A little trick, a little bit of being detached. So, yeah, that's the extrovert. And, and I guess I do, as I'm sitting here, reading these definitions, I guess I am more of an introvert. The weird thing is that I talk for a literal living. So then we get to the omnivert thing.

• 5:58Jocko Willink?

  The omnivert thing is, I'm trying not to read this whole definition.

• 6:06Jocko Willink?

  Some individuals can be both reserved and outgoing. They can assume the personality traits of both an introvert and an extrovert. That person's called an omnivert, alright? And then there's an ambivert, which is, ambiverts are those who score midpoint on the introvert extrovert scale. They can be introverted or an extrovert, depending on the context or how they feel at the moment. So, this is kinda like, just a catch-all, I mean, come on, bro. What are we really doing here? We're to say like, hey, there's these two things, but you can actually be anything. This is kinda weird, right?

• 6:44Speaker 01

  That's what it seems like here, yeah. Especially that last one.

• 6:48Jocko Willink?

  This just kinda like, made me lose a lot of respect for this whole gig. I thought we had a big topic.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Unless these other people, the omnivert and ambivert are like, super rare.

• 7:00Jocko Willink?

  It's like saying, hey, a car can be either black or white, or it can be any other color. I think that's what we just did. We could have a big talk about, well, you know, but these cars are black, and these cars are white, and here, white's a little bit cooler. Black shows up, you know, more dirt's just a little bit of a problem, but it'd be warmer if you're in a cold climate. And so you kinda get in this discussion about black or white cars, and you're like, oh, but a car can be any color in the world. So this is kinda what we just got into here.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:26Jocko Willink?

  It makes me wanna throw this whole conversation out the window, record a different podcast.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  I don't know, man, it's kinda, well, you know, like astrology, right? Where?

• 7:34Jocko Willink?

  Oh, you mean like, Sagittarius, like that kinda thing?

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Zodiac signs and whatnot, and you know how you read your daily horoscope, whatever. And it has all these things, and it's kinda the same deal. It's like, um, man, you're very reserved, but, but, um, but down to express feelings, you need it, you know, like.

• 7:54Jocko Willink?

  You know what, I would be like, back in the, when I was, when I was a single dude. I'd be out, you know, in some, some whatever, bar, hanging out, talking to a girl. And, you know, the girl would be like, what? You know, what, you know, be talking for a while, I'm like, what sign are you? This, this is not 1970, by the way. This is like, in the, I guess in the 90s. A girl would be like, oh, you know what sign are you? And I'd be like, oh, I'd be like, oh, I'm Sagittarius. And they'd go, oh, I knew it, I knew you were, and then I'd say, oh, I'm actually not a Sagittarius, I was kidding. They'd be like, oh, what are you? And I'd say, um, Capricorn, or is that a one?

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 8:28Jocko Willink?

  I'd be like, I'm actually Capricorn. Oh, I knew it. And I would do this to him four times. And be like, this stuff is stupid, what you're talking about. Let's not play this game.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  You must be on the cusp.

• 8:39Jocko Willink?

  On the cusp of?

• 8:40Speaker 01

  That's the thing.

• 8:41Jocko Willink?

  Oh, oh, you're, oh, oh, your, your moon is waning Sagittarius.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  You're on the, you're the ambivert of Capricorn.

• 8:51Jocko Willink?

  Oh, dude. So that's kind of what we're dealing with here. A little bit.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  It feels, there's some of those over undertones, whatever of it, that.

• 9:01Jocko Willink?

  I mean, look, we know shy people, right? We know people that are introverted a hundred percent.

• 9:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:06Jocko Willink?

  We know people that are extroverted a hundred percent. And we know people that are in between. This is my point. I guess this is just more a description.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:12Jocko Willink?

  Instead of just trying to categorize everybody. Cause, because there's also people that are sort of introverted, but they also, whatever.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like a lot of the psychology stuff is, oh, psychology. I, I, I do believe in it is like legitimate stuff because it's just like studying people and personalities and commonalities and all this stuff. So it totally makes sense. So, but you're right, just like you're saying, like everyone's the same, but everyone's different. It's kind of like, yeah, like you can categorize people, but you're going to find nuance and variation and stuff like that. So it's like, okay, now we got to categorize the nuance.

• 9:47Jocko Willink?

  Yep.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  So that's a, it feels like, I don't know. This is the first time me reading all this stuff with you. So, but that's what it feels like is going on. Maybe that's how astrology kind of got started. You see what I'm saying? Where like, they were like, oh yeah, all these people were acting way different when they were born in December. And these people were acting way different because they were born in May. See what I'm saying? Then there's like.

• 10:07Jocko Willink?

  This is a trash idea.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so too, but hey, you know, I gotta talk through it.

• 10:13Jocko Willink?

  Uh, yeah, I've got like the definitions of omnivert here and ambivert. The omnivert can assume the personality traits of both an introvert and extrovert. An ambivert exists somewhere between an extrovert and an introvert. Who was taking the time to sort of?

• 10:30Jocko Willink?

  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 JacoUnderground.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, 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,

• 11:12Jocko Willink?

  more interaction, 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 JacoUnderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.