Jocko Underground: Society, Advertising, etc, Appeals to Our Desire For Immediate Gratification. How to Stay Ambitious.

Society, Advertising, etc appeals to our weakest desires of immediate gratification. Getting better at oral exams. Labor shortages. Stepping up to lead in a toxic environment. Questionable Jiu Jitsu places? How to stay ambitious. 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 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. And, okay, we are a part of society. No way to get around that, right? Even if you're, even if you're living out in the middle of nowhere, you are gonna have to brush up against society. So, we've got this thing going on right now, probably at a scale that's never gone on before, in my opinion. And that is the world of advertising right now, just constantly trying to capitalize on human beings' desire for immediate gratification.

• 0:45Jocko Willink?

  And, what can we do to protect ourselves, our friends, the people we know, against this onslaught of just onslaught of advertising and, and attention-seeking that's out there for us? I'm gonna go ahead and start off, uh, this is one of the, tell us the story for the 474th time about the book, Mind Games?

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, Mind Games.

• 1:24Jocko Willink?

  And how it made you feel like you shouldn't lose your temper and the kind of trick you played on yourself? Cause I think this is a similar thing.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay. Uh, my name's, uh, Mike Powell, by the way, is the author. So it's not a book like what you'd think, just to clarify, it's not like this, it's like a book with these teeny tiny short chapters that are, some are just little puzzles, some are this, and then some are little explanations and stuff. Anyway, one of them was anger management, or losing your temper, something like that, I forget which chapter it was, but it was about anger management. And in there, it said a lot of things, but one of the main things was that, like, people with a short temper, or get, people who get angry really easily.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Usually comes from low self-esteem in that in that that was always like a shameful thing growing up just you know in school they teach you self-esteem or whatever and I always thought to myself how can someone have low self-esteem that's kind of embarrassing to like have low self-esteem I didn't even know really what it was it just sounded real bad so for whatever reason that was ingrained in me where it's like you if you can avoid displaying that you have low self-esteem you should avoid that I've always thought that or whatever so yeah when it said that I was like huh and it made sense too and it

• 2:39Jocko Willink?

  And you used to have a bad temper?

• 2:40Speaker 01

  No, never. I never had a bad temper.

• 2:43Jocko Willink?

  You used to get angry, you used to show anger?

• 2:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, more loosely so I mean no.

• 2:48Jocko Willink?

  So why was this a big deal?

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Because it said the word self-esteem so it's so to me I overkilled it and I was like anytime you get angry you just have low self-esteem and I went back to work just preaching it preaching it to everybody like all the bouncers or whatever like where it's like yeah man if you get and think about it because they explain it it doesn't just say that and then move on it explains everything whatever I'm talking about controlling your environment and like all this stuff right so it it just hit me real hard and to me I took it as hey if you get mad even though it says in there anger is a natural part of life you know all this stuff it I took it as like yeah if you get mad and openly display your anger you have low self-esteem that's how it landed on my brain.

• 3:27Jocko Willink?

  You the way you've told me that story before is like you played a trick on yourself of like oh if I get angry that means I have low self-esteem and I'm not gonna be that guy.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Exactly, right.

• 3:36Jocko Willink?

  So I think here this is an opportunity for us to play a trick on ourselves kinds of or use that same methodology to say oh if I'm actually allowing this stuff to influence me I have a weak mind.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:52Jocko Willink?

  Right? Like that's what it is if you can't get off your phone if you can't put down the stop scrolling if you can't do that your freaking mind is weak and it's being invaded it's being invaded by someone that's smarter and stronger than you and is taking advantage of your weakness.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Playing you for a sucker.

• 4:10Jocko Willink?

  Playing you for a sucker as we used to say.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:15Jocko Willink?

  So I think that's what you gotta do you gotta take a step back you gotta recognize what's happening and you gotta realize you can't let it happen you gotta get some control back and not allow these uh I mean to me when when we talk about advertising we're just talking about social media now I mean have have you ever watched a show in the last Well, when's the last time you watched a show where you had to watch a commercial? Like the Super Bowl, maybe?

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:42Jocko Willink?

  Right, because everyone does streaming or on demand.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  On demand.

• 4:46Jocko Willink?

  So it's not like the old days where you were kind of subjected. When I was a little kid, you were subjected to advertisements. Because you were watching a show, you were freaking addicted to that little TV set. Saturday morning cartoons and they're going to play the whatever advertisement on there to get you to buy whatever. But it was, it was involuntary.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:07Jocko Willink?

  You were subjected to it. Now? I mean, I even have YouTube Red or YouTube Premium.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Premium, sure.

• 5:14Jocko Willink?

  And when I, when I go on someone that doesn't have YouTube Premium, I get mad.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Brutal.

• 5:18Jocko Willink?

  Like, I, I think, I don't get mad, but I think you're, you're, this is ridiculous. I think YouTube Premium is 10 bucks a month. Actually, I think it was 9.99 when I signed, but they jacked that price up now. It's like 13 bucks now. But so I'm not even subjected to advertisements on YouTube. By the way, that's amazing. We have no advertisements on YouTube. People, it's, when I, when I suffer through someone else's YouTube right now.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:44Jocko Willink?

  And they click on a video to watch it and they gotta watch a 30 second ad or whatever. I think, what are you doing? What a waste of time.

• 5:52Jocko Willink?

  What are you doing? So? I'm not subjected to it there. So, so really, the place you get subjected to it is social media. And you click on this thing or the thing pops up. And it just happens to be algorithmically connected to some thing that you searched yesterday. And it's just, isn't that strange? You'll search for something and then it just pops up all day.

• 6:13Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, related stuff too.

• 6:15Jocko Willink?

  So what do you need to do? Detach, take a step back, see that you're being tricked and don't allow yourself to be tricked. That's the way I look at it.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Yep, straight up trick. And here's the thing, I'm good. Thank you for that advice. But as mo- like most things, bro, it's, it goes deep, it goes deep and it goes so deep that it's not all bad. Like, appropriate advertising is good for you and your goals. Like if I wanna, if I

• 6:41Jocko Willink?

  Don't you like watching YouTube commercials?

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Sometimes, yeah. I like sometimes watching, my daughter's the same way where, well, here's the thing, and that's another trick too, by the way, but it's not a trick against me, it's a trick for me in a way, where if you notice commercials now are like, they're fun to watch, like they're clever commercials. It's not like old school back in the day commercials where it's like, oh, freaking buy this sponge, you know? But it's different now, now they're entertaining, now they got celebrities in there, now they got jokes, now they got humor, they got special effects, they got like, bruh, it's entertaining. Commercials are entertaining now.

• 7:17Jocko Willink?

  Right now that you're talking about your own commercials for Jocko Fuel.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  I'm just saying, that's part of the game now.

• 7:24Jocko Willink?

  The entertaining commercials of which you speak.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Nonetheless, nonetheless, none.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  That's how it is nowadays. And then, I don't, what is it, advertising versus, um, marketing?

• 7:39Jocko Willink?

  Watching your commercials too.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  Thanks Jocko, thanks Jocko, A D, Assistant Director. The, the, I, I don't know if there's a, there is a difference, advertising and marketing. I don't know what's what, but nonetheless, we'll just

• 7:50Jocko Willink?

  I don't know, K-Dogs over here nodding his head like you just struck gold, so I don't know.

• 7:56Jocko Willink?

  I don't know the difference.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  So let's just say marketing, cause really that's kinda essentially what we're talking about, where, and there, it's ever, sure, an actual advertisement will be played on this and there, and you click here and whatever, that's an actual advertisement, but marketing is freaking deep, and it goes super deep. So, like, if you, if I see you wearing a X Y Z shirt, and I like you and I look up to you, you just marketed that X Y Z shirt to me. Even though you just wore it cause it was comfortable and you didn't even know anyone was gonna see you that day, but that's marketing already, cause it influenced me to think, to see value in that shirt, because I look up to you, if it's good enough for you, it's damn for sure good enough for me, see what I'm saying? Effective marketing right there, and

• 8:40Speaker 01

  That's just like a branding kind of situation, but you can go like, um, look, if I'm looking for freaking uh books on how to improve my freaking archery. And one is like talking about the trigger or I don't know, I'm just making up these terms. And shot up bow and arrow the other day, anyway. And I find a book and I'm like, cool, this is a good one. And then I go online again and it shows me another book. Cause I, it obviously the algorithm, you know, determined that I'm obviously looking for books to improve my archery. It's gonna show me another one. That helps me with my goal. Like it helps me. So advertising can help. Of course, the companies that are advertising whatever, but it helps me too.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  So you gotta kind of discern like what's helping me and what's just luring me and using me as a pawn overall, you know? So it's like, yeah, how you said, like, yeah, it plays off your immediate gratification. Sure. Yes, it does. And those are the ones you wanna like avoid. You know how they, they'll get the perfectly manicured hamburger with the glistening and it's CGI, by the way, it's not even a real hamburger. It's like the computer hamburger, but it looks so good, you know? And they'll show it to you at a certain time, you know, like right before lunch, 11 a.m. Something like this, because they know, they know lunch is coming up. See what I'm saying?

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Or they'll put certain colors on certain um advertisements that like are proven apparently. I don't know, but apparently they're proven to make you more hungry. Like I guess red and yellow, it's like makes you more hungry.

• 10:07Jocko Willink?

  Tiger stripe.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  No, bro, no. Red and yellow apparently makes you more hungry. Bro, that's what I heard. Nonetheless, it goes deep, but I'm saying it's an advertising, not all bad. That's the hard part. So you gotta navigate.

• 10:22Jocko Willink?

  I think you should definitely uh set up some filters in your brain and try not to click on things. That's what I'm saying.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, but yours is super simple because you're like function straight up. Anything after that is all extra credit.

• 10:36Jocko Willink?

  I was looking at one of my kids, my kids grams. And they had advertisements every third or fourth scroll.

• 10:46Jocko Willink?

  You know what I'm saying? So every third or fourth thing that they would scroll past was an advertisement.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  And that was on, when you said your kids.

• 10:52Jocko Willink?

  That was, that was on my daughter's phone.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Phone, okay.

• 10:55Jocko Willink?

  And I was, I was like, uh, damn, cause I don't have barely any advertisements on mine, barely any.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  I wonder why that is.

• 11:04Jocko Willink?

  I think it's because I never click on anything. I don't click like, I don't like anybody's thing. I don't share anything. I'm just like, I'm like a, a damn monk on Instagram.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Instagram monk over here.

• 11:20Jocko Willink?

  I'm not, I'm not sending out them little hearts.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:23Jocko Willink?

  And I think that must be, have what it, it must have something to do with it.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would imagine so. Cause yeah, that's true because all like.

• 11:29Jocko Willink?

  How, how, how many advertisements do you get?

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Alright. I'm not bombarded with them, but they're part of my experience every single time, for sure.

• 11:37Jocko Willink?

  I'm, I'm actually surprised when I see one. I'll be like, oh, there's one. I'll be like, oh, what's that? Oh, it's a sponsored thing. And it, cause it always looks weird to me anyways, cause it's something that I'm not. It, I think the algorithm has a hard time figuring me out anyways. It sort of doesn't know what to send my way.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause it would make sense, and I don't know how these algorithms work specifically, but it would make sense where like, you know, you're scrolling, you know? And after a while, like especially when you're not like all into it, you're just scrolling for something that really catches your eye for whatever reason. So I wonder, it has to be monitoring how much like.

• 12:10Jocko Willink?

  It does monitor how long you scroll.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  And then you pause on ones.

• 12:12Jocko Willink?

  Yep. It monitors all that stuff. Every little move you make, it's monitoring. And I wish I could think of this. I, I, I clicked on a YouTube video the other day and you gotta remember for me, that's nothing. There are no investment whatsoever, cause I don't have to watch an advertisement. So I clicked on a YouTube video and it was something so stupid. I can't remember what it is, but the freaking top. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen.

• 12:43Jocko Willink?

  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, 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

• 13:28Jocko Willink?

  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.