Jocko Underground: Twitter Is Not Good For Everyone | Too Many Rules Preventing Effectiveness

Twitter is not for everyone. How to be more enthusiastic and up-beat with people. Fasting at 15 years old. Too many rules keeping me from being effective. Finding motivation as a team. Work-Life balance. 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 75, sitting here with Echo Charles. So, here's something I sent out on the social media platform.

• 0:11Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 0:11Jocko Willink?

  Twitter, you heard of Twitter?

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 0:13Jocko Willink?

  Yo, that's right, you got hacked.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  Sure, Elon Musk, right, that's Twitter.

• 0:17Jocko Willink?

  Yep, here's what I sent out, Twitter, Twitter isn't good for everyone. If it makes you angry or frustrated, you shouldn't spend time on it. If it allows you to see other people's perspectives, so you can understand the world better, or you can share some information with other people that that other people might not have, that's good, enjoy.

• 0:39Jocko Willink?

  No big deal.

• 0:42Jocko Willink?

  Now, there's a little bit of, something a little bit antithetical about me saying that, because if you've got something that's bothering you, shouldn't you confront it? You know what I'm saying? It's a kind of a stretch, maybe it's a stretch to say that. But there's a reason why I said it, because look, there's a person, there's a personality type.

• 1:05Jocko Willink?

  Anxiety gets to them, you ever have anxiety?

• 1:07Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:09Jocko Willink?

  Some people, they get anxiety, hits them. It's a problem. There's such a thing as an anxiety attack.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17Jocko Willink?

  Where people have to like, stop what they're doing.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Right, yeah, well, I hear it's like a heart attack, like they think they're dying. Anxiety attack.

• 1:26Jocko Willink?

  So that's a person that can have that going on.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31Jocko Willink?

  There's personalities that can get angry over things that they shouldn't get angry about. That's who I'm talking about right now, right, different personalities. Now, there's benefits to social media, for sure. For sure, there's benefits, you can, like I said, you can hear other people's perspectives, you can learn about things. You can link to a good article that you could get some good information from, you can see other people's perspectives, like there's some, we've gotten connected to a lot of really cool people that have come on the podcast that connected through the social media. And I would say primarily Twitter, most of the time. All those things are good, but let's face it, hey, well, look, we know if you're in the, if you're, the algorithm's grabbing you and you're just wasting time on it, we know that's bad. But if you're getting angry.

• 2:18Jocko Willink?

  That's not good and you shouldn't spend time on it. Now here's where people are talking about detachment. Yeah, I talk about detachment, obviously.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:26Jocko Willink?

  And then people say, how do you do it? And I explain how to do it. And then how can you practice it? If Twitter or social media makes you mad, you could legitimately use it to practice detachment. You legitimately use it to practice detachment. So go on your social media. If you're so inclined, you want to practice some detachment, go on there and go and look at some people that you totally and vehemently disagree with.

• 3:00Jocko Willink?

  And read what they wrote and watch the video that they posted.

• 3:07Jocko Willink?

  And then be like, okay. How's this like, it's kind of a good environment to do it in because you're by yourself. You can, you can actually monitor your emotions, right? You're like, you're not confronting anyone.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:22Jocko Willink?

  It's not real. But have you ever read something on social media that made you get a little bit mad?

• 3:29Speaker 01

  I feel like I, yeah, I feel like I have. I can't remember anything in particular, but.

• 3:34Jocko Willink?

  How about just a comment?

• 3:35Speaker 01

  If it's about me?

• 3:36Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. How about a derogatory comment on a YouTube channel, on a YouTube video? About you?

• 3:44Speaker 01

  No, not that made me mad.

• 3:46Jocko Willink?

  Never?

• 3:46Speaker 01

  I don't know. Probably, but I can't remember anything specific. No.

• 3:50Jocko Willink?

  What about some political belief that someone threw out there? You get dis- mad.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  I got, yeah, like mad, not mad, I mean, come on, mad, but I got like annoyed. There's a guy that says stuff and the way he says it is super smarmy, kind of like you're so dumb for not believing this, you know, like that's the attitude. And that's super annoying for sure.

• 4:11Jocko Willink?

  Okay. So you're probably in a pretty good place, actually.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  I think, I feel like it.

• 4:15Jocko Willink?

  You don't need to practice your detachment. You're pretty emotionally detached and not getting all spun up.

• 4:23Jocko Willink?

  This is an opportunity for people that might get spun up.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:26Jocko Willink?

  And I'm gonna tell you, if you're the type of person that gets spun up on social media, you're probably getting spun up while driving, you're probably getting spun up while your wife is talking to you, you're probably getting spun up by your kids, you're probably getting spun up by uh, somebody in the grocery store. You see what I'm saying?

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:41Jocko Willink?

  Am I wrong?

• 4:42Speaker 01

  I don't think you're wrong now.

• 4:43Jocko Willink?

  So, I'm saying you could legitimately go, you're in a detached position a little bit, because you're just looking at your phone, right?

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:53Jocko Willink?

  If you can't detach while you're looking at your phone, it's a good place to practice. And look at something that really makes you mad and say, huh, that's an interesting perspective they have.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:02Jocko Willink?

  That's, hmm, that's interesting.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:05Jocko Willink?

  And then, read another one. And say, oh, I'm glad I understand them better now.

• 5:13Jocko Willink?

  And if you can, if you can do that, you can, you can, if you can make progress over time, it's gonna be helpful for you. Now, listen, if it just makes you mad, don't do it. If you're getting so mad, first of all, you should reflect on that. If you're getting mad at a bot, that's my immediate thought. Anybody that's saying something that's really bothersome, I'm thinking that's a bot.

• 5:37Jocko Willink?

  Right? It's not even a human being. It's a programmed AI.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, you say that a lot, but I don't know, a bot?

• 5:47Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  You think they make bot, I don't know anything about bots. So, the only bots I know are the ones hacking my account and doing, doing like.

• 5:57Jocko Willink?

  If you don't know this, Echo Charles got hacked. They took his Twitter and you did some dumb, honestly. I'm trying to be disrespectful with this.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  It was a lapse of judgment.

• 6:06Jocko Willink?

  You did some dumb, you like clicked out of Twitter and then it said, "To get back to Twitter, enter your password." I mean, that's ignorant, right?

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, big time.

• 6:16Jocko Willink?

  So, don't do anything dumb. If you do, like Echo did, then.

• 6:22Jocko Willink?

  Well, Echo has lost everybody. He lost all his followers.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Yep, that was bad.

• 6:26Jocko Willink?

  But he's back now. Echo Charles, at Echo Charles. So, listen, alls I'm saying is, people ask for a place to try to detach. And if you're getting mad at social media, you're probably one of those people that needs to practice it.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:38Jocko Willink?

  So, practice it. If it drives you crazy, get off of it, forget it, maybe go on once a month. And rehearse and practice detachment.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:47Jocko Willink?

  But if you're the type of person that's going full Karen.

• 6:54Jocko Willink?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Yes, I do. I do know what you're saying.

• 6:56Jocko Willink?

  And Karen can go in any direction, right? Is that right? Or is Karen a specific, is Karen a right wing or left wing?

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Uh, no, no, no, that, yeah.

• 7:06Jocko Willink?

  It's neither, right?

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:07Jocko Willink?

  It's just Karen.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:09Jocko Willink?

  So, if you feel like maybe you're a Karen.

• 7:14Jocko Willink?

  I think, I think I tried, I was trying to figure out what the male Karen is called. And you know what? I figured it out.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  What?

• 7:19Jocko Willink?

  Karen.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Karen, I'm now Karen. I thought there was like a name.

• 7:23Jocko Willink?

  I think there might be, but I forget what it is. My price should have done better research on the subject. Anyways, I think a male Karen is called Karen.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:32Jocko Willink?

  You're still Karen.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:33Jocko Willink?

  Uh, you're, you're, it's a, it's a non-gender specific.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I think that's viable because if, if I call you a Karen, you know exactly what I'm saying to you.

• 7:42Jocko Willink?

  Exactly.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Like, you're just an entitled complainer.

• 7:45Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Essentially.

• 7:45Jocko Willink?

  You could be complaining about anything.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:48Jocko Willink?

  And you think you need to talk to the man?

• 7:51Speaker 01

  To the manager?

• 7:54Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 7:55Jocko Willink?

  Alright, so, it's legit training, just throwing it out there. Listen, please, don't let social media ruin your life. Don't let it waste your time. Get positive benefits out of it. That's all I'm saying. Try it. There you go. That's my statement for today.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Uh, so I had that today where, where, and you talked me out of it, by the way. You didn't know you talked me out of it, but I was listening to your episode with Huberman.

• 8:21Jocko Willink?

  Okay.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  And you were on the part where you're talking, you know, and you say this a lot where the storm cloud, right? You know, just it's kind of, it is a detaching, basically, but it's essentially.

• 8:33Jocko Willink?

  Yes, just to explain that if you can't detach, you can't see what's outside that storm cloud. You're just in the storm cloud. As soon as you detach, take a step back, you can get out of the storm cloud. You go, oh, I see myself in there and I need to walk in this direction and I'll be out of it. Okay, cool. So, yes.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  So, and then, so I was getting anxiety. So, you asked, do I get anxiety? The way I see it, there's like different kind, people have anxiety like as, I think it's called like chronic anxiety versus like acute anxiety, something like this, from what I understand. So, I don't have that, but, um, so I was doing squats today while I'm listening to the episode.

• 9:08Jocko Willink?

  Anxiety can come with squats, 100%.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  You gotta, you gotta get into mindset. So, I don't know if you ever have this, but like squats, every once in a while, I'll have like a nightmare, like it's like a daydream, but it's a nightmare of like all my tendons and like, or all my tendons and my legs are gonna snap.

• 9:28Jocko Willink?

  Oh, I haven't had that night. That's horrible.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is horrible. Of course, it never happens, but like I'll have every once in a while, once in a great while. So, today for, I don't even know why, it wasn't even that heavy, but it was, it like hit me, that idea hit me right when you guys were talking about that, just like happenstance, you didn't cause it or nothing like that. And I'm like, and it got to me so bad that I was like, I don't think I'm gonna do these squats today. Like, I'm, I think I might like get jammed up today real bad. I think my patella tendons are gonna snap on this squat, right? And it wasn't even that heavy. So, nonetheless, and it was the kind where I, you know, when you, you get anxiety, like you start to like kind of faint a little bit, like you feel like kind of faint. I was feeling kind of faint.

• 10:13Jocko Willink?

  I don't know that. It hasn't happened to me, honestly. And that's why it's a little bit tough to relate.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:19Jocko Willink?

  On this, I know the feeling of like squats suck. I know the feeling of, of thinking to myself, I don't even know if I want to be strong. Like this next set is gonna suck so bad that maybe I just should be weaker. I'll just accept it.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  That's not anxiety, though. That's like, um.

• 10:34Jocko Willink?

  This is mental weakness.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, like you got confronted with a mental like confrontation and it kind of got, had you on the ropes. That's what it is. Yeah. And that's way easier to get past, in my opinion, than this. This is almost like, almost like, you ever, you ever felt claustrophobia before?

• 10:51Jocko Willink?

  No.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  You never felt claustrophobia before?

• 10:54Jocko Willink?

  Okay, not really.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 10:56Jocko Willink?

  I will say this, when I see someone in a cave diving and they're all, they're all squeezing through a space.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:06Jocko Willink?

  I think to myself, that does not look fun.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  Feeling claustrophobia is similar to the anxiety. Well, in my thing, I'm literally referencing what happened to me today, where it was like, I'm on this like weird slippery slope and all I gotta do is stop, just stop, just stop moving or stop slipping. It's like a real like easy switch, not easy, but a real simple switch to switch, but it's just, you gotta focus on switching it. It's like that kind of a feeling. And I was like, man, I can't switch it. I'm like going deeper into this thing like, like I might dive in. I don't know. It was weird and it's so dumb. But meanwhile, you're talking in, in the ear where you're talking about the storm cloud and it's like, all you gotta do is take one step out of the side of the storm cloud. You see what everyone else has seen. You're like, oh my gosh, that's like way.

• 11:52Jocko Willink?

  Like everyone outside the storm cloud can be like, hey, this girl's not worth your downfall right now, bro. Or hey, you need to stop drinking, bro. Or hey, you need to quit that job or whatever the case may be.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. And to me, it was, bro, first off, that's not even heavy.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Didn't wait a million times on my way up to like heavy. It's not heavy.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  And in the history of history of squats, I don't think I've ever really injured. I injured my back before, but I haven't even got hurt ever in squats. And I used to get my squat out. Anyway. So that's what I saw after I finally did flip the switch. I'm like, what am I even doing? And then I go and I do it. It's like super easy. No stiffness, no nothing. So I'm like, oh, what am I even doing? But it did get me for a little bit.

• 12:34Jocko Willink?

  Alright, so you do get anxiety.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  That was the first time that I got anything that felt like that, like I couldn't escape it, like it was so unreasonable.

• 12:44Jocko Willink?

  Maybe this is like a legit warning?

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Yes. Oh, fuck yeah. That was, that was part of the whole game, man. I was like, this is a sign.

• 12:52Jocko Willink?

  I had these threads growing up, these two girls, they were twins and there was some situation, they were coming on a train or getting on a train to visit or something. And they were like, they called. This is back in the day. We're talking landlines, you know, they called on the phone.

• 13:09Jocko 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

• 13:50Jocko Willink?

  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 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.