General Stan McChrystal on Eating One Meal Per Day, Special Ops, and Mental Toughness (#86)

Just a suggestion: Any chance I can find the written versions of these podcasts? I seem to have more time reading than listening to podcasts 🙂

Tim, I think it would be fantastic to include a tiny blurb with each conversation that you have that details how the conversation came about. I think people take great interest in how a conversation with people of such high standing positions (currently or formerly held) is obtained/organized.

In other news, if you were serious about considering a search for a personal Aide-de-Camp, I’d love to talk with you about that.

Maybe you could set up a test that people could participate in so that you might better find what you are looking for from that type of helper.

Hi Tim, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett was one of the earliest American advocates of navy aircraft carriers reference to http://www.historynet.com/who-was-responsible-for-creating-the-pre-war-aircraft-carriers.htm

His book ‘Team of teams’ is excellent – I’m desperately trying to get my commanders to read it.

The one meal a day/fasting is really easy. If you keep this in mind:

*What your body uses while fasting is what you ate the day before.

That’s what was stored and is being recompositioned.

Requires that you eat well the day before: High nutrient density. (Slow carb diet, for instance)

*Keep in mind that the body’s ability for recompositioning is better than you think.

*Blood sugar regulation during fasting is dependent on mitochondrial capacity, which is upregulated by it. Which is a good thing.

It’s only difficult when you’re adapting to it. Or when you didn’t eat right the day before.

Loved this interview. Thanks a lot Tim.

It changed my perspective in one key way:

Rather than ask myself “What do I want to learn?”, I tried replacing it with “Who do I want to learn from?” and “Who do I be more like?” (Who has qualities I want to develop or maintain) which yielded some pretty interesting answers.

In short: Gave me a new question to ask myself which will lead to action rather than inaction.

What an amazing interview, it has given me a completely different view on the military being someone who supports none violence. looking forward to reading the book recommendations and also ensuring I have a large bag of pretzels before I start the one meal a regime.

Not blue darts to fire this week!

Thanks Tim!

Very interesting interview, with another outside-the-(tech)box personality. The diversity of guests featured really helps keep things fresh, and is a distinguishing characteristic of the show. Keep it up!

Tim, I also wanted to apologize for my rant/’gotcha’ following the Glenn Beck podcast. I tried to keep it balanced, but I’m not sure what good could come from airing out a random and meaningless beef in this forum. I’ve had other stream-of-consciousness comments that were well received here before, and I think my radar was down for what constitutes adding value versus just noise. That comment was mostly noise, and overstepped the boundaries on what is acceptable living-room conversation. Sort of like taking a sample of your homemade bean dip and then going off on a tangent to the other guests about how completely overrated garbanzo beans are. Validity aside (which is also debatable), its a dick move. My bad — won’t happen again. Thank you for all of your amazing, neverending content that consistently adds insane value to the community.

Loved this podcas,t but then again there hasn’t been a bad one. Looking forward to listening to their book. This podcast reminded me of two great books, one, on business and teamwork, is The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack, and the other is In Search of the Warrior Spirit by Richard Strozzi-Heckler.

Very interesting interview, with another A-list outside-the-(tech)box personality. The diversity of guests featured really helps keep things fresh, and is a distinguishing characteristic of the show. Keep it up!

Tim, I also wanted to apologize for my rant/’gotcha’ following the Glenn Beck podcast. I tried to keep it balanced, but I’m not sure what good could come from airing out a random and meaningless beef in this forum. I’ve had other stream-of-consciousness comments that were well received here before, and think my radar was down for what constitutes adding value versus just noise. That comment was mostly noise, and overstepped the boundaries on what is acceptable ‘living-room’ conversation. Sort of like taking a sample of your homemade bean dip at a housewarming and then going off on a tangent to the other guests about how completely overrated garbanzo beans are. Validity aside (which is also debatable), it’s a dick move. My bad — won’t happen again. Thank you for all of your amazing content that consistently adds immense value to the community. The best on the web.

Kenneth Whiting, USN, years of service from 1908 to 1943.

Thank you for this great podcast. Chris Fussell talked about how people need to read and learn about the country they are deployed or visiting. So on target! I grew up in a Mediterranean city where there is NATO and American military base. I witnessed some American soldiers’ displaying obnoxious behaviors and getting negative reaction from the locals. Not all of them were like that, but those bad apples did enough to give bad name to the rest. It is important to respect the culture of the country you are visiting. In other words, don’t be an a-hole when you go to another country, especially if you are not wanted there.

“In your opinion, what makes a good leader, and who exemplifies those qualities?” In my personal experience and knowledge, people confuse being a leader with being a boss. Controlling, loud people like to think of themselves as leaders rather than admitting that they are just control freaks who need constant attention. What makes a good leader:

– Leaders encourage and inspire everyone around them. This comes naturally. They don’t create a fake image.

-Leaders pioneer people. They take brave decisions. Therefore, they are not always popular.

– Leaders are approachable, personable people. They listen to others and take their ideas into consideration, but they are firm when they make a decision.

– As the famous saying goes “Leaders aren’t born. They are made.” They usually have tough childhoods. All the hardships in life prepares them to be decisive adults. Even though they are people oriented, they need their solitude sometimes to recharge.

The best ones have an unconventional mind that doesn’t respect the public opinion. They can see an argument from all angles. My father was a real leader for me and everyone around when I was growing up. His mind was 100 years ahead of his time. His soul purpose in life was exploring, learning and educating.

Leaders work to move the society forward. They aren’t after only personal profit. They are natural teachers. I must say, Tim Ferriss, you are a leader too. You have all the qualities of a leader.

I hope this comment wasn’t too long. I swear, I tried hard to cut it short. 😛 Thanks for all the Periscope meetings and other quality stuff.

All the best. xx

Hi Tim,

In your podcasts I see you always as there morning rituals. would also love to know there night time rituals, ie what time do they sleep , how many hours of sleep, do they review the day, do they do planning, do they ask their subconscious brain to think about something in their sleep etc.

Thanks for interviewing Stan McChrystal. I served with him while we were both Army Captains and attending the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Ft Benning about 35 years ago. I was actually his squad leader at that time. He was obviously the most successful officer from our class.

I thought this was an incredibly informative and relevant interview. Listening to these two servicemen describe how they navigated through a rapidly changing environment and were successful could not be more helpful to me at this particular point in my career. I have a question for them and/or Tim – Do you think that you can inspire a culture of adaptability and rapid, flexible action from the bottom up? Or is this kind of culture that has to be led from the highest level of management? Would love a follow up with Gen. McChrystal at some point in the future.

Moffet was a buddy of the president and only after the Navy reluctantly admitted that battleships might be vulnerable to air attacks did they have him start building aircraft carriers. It was Billy Mitchell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell who shocked and awed the Navy and the Secretary of War into admitting this by his demo of 1 plane sinking some mothballed captured warships. McCrystal definitely was referring to Billy Mitchell because Mitchell was a maverick who was eventually demoted and court-martialed for his very innovative thinking.

I’m glad Mr. Ferriss asked about meditation. (Intense exercise and yoga was their meditation.) Perhaps asking guests how they clear their minds (become focused / absorbed, used altered states, etc) in order to be open to new ideas & thoughts would be a more general, open, and useful question

with the threat of ISIS I think we need a military man as President. some one who can take charge and handle the agression america will see in the coming years. I think Gen. Stan McCrystal could be that man

Audiobooks & Podcasts for Optimal Living.

It was lovely validation this morning to hear that General McChrystal uses audiobooks in a very similar way to me: for “reading” without making time for it, like when he’s already doing something (bathroom, gym, etc.) I would add podcasts (no 1. right now is yours, Tim!) to the list. But more interesting perhaps is to add audio-lessons too. I took a job in Nicaragua recently and needed to learn Spanish, so I downloaded a free podcast (Coffee Break Spanish) and learned the language in six weeks, while cycling or walking to meetings, showering, etc. – that is, I learned a new skill without giving a single minute of my time to the challenge.

Tip: Good, loud Bluetooth speakers are well worth $100. That way you can use your earphones in public places, office, etc. and your speakers in the kitchen, steamy bathroom, etc. Then you can keep all your audio content on your mobile and just change audio output device when you move from one scenario to the next.

How can we apply General Stan McChrystal’s Team of Teams approach to deconstruct the Silos of public education?

1. This interview changed my perspective on the army a little. Few days ago we had the Warsaw Uprising Anniversary, so I heard the sirens as I was listening to the podcast. So I thought of course “I am SO AGAINST wars!”, “I wouldn’t allow anybody from my family go and fight!” and so on…But then I thouht about an evolutionary perspective. If we have a mechanism that makes us go and search for territory and power, and – on the other hand -defend our land, territory, belongings etc., then maybe we should, as a culture, have the army as a structure, that makes it possible to somehow organise the possible outcomes of this mechanism (f.ex. agression). The problem is that the army means more power, so here comes the danger that it enhances the mechanism it was supossed to civilize, to “calm down” (I’m not sure I’m making myself clear in English, forgive me).

2. I came up with several questions while listening to this interview, so did other listeners I suppose. The problem is not that you don’t ask the questions I would like to ask 🙂 The thing is, as Laura D. pointed out already (http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/06/22/adam-gazzaley/#comment-813928), that you don’t follow your interlocutors, you follow your questions-to-ask-list. Some interesting things came up (like the role of women!!!), obviously important to ones you talked to, and obviously ignored by you. As you often point out your questions are self-interested, so by asking them you are getting better at things you are already good at, but unfortunately some interesting issues get lost.

Tim, First of all, your podcast interviews are top notch (ex: Laird Hamilton, Glenn Beck, Sam Harris etc…). As such, I was expecting another excellent interview with General McCrystal, however you never brought up the “elephant in the room”; ie even when he mentioned tangentially the “Rolling Stone article”, it appeared that you didn’t hear it (did you guys have some agreement ahead of time to avoid this topic?). Anyway, it was very disspointing in that since your… goal is to deconstruct / dig deep into high achieving people and since we all learn from our mistakes, then why in the world would you not bring up Michael Hasting’s article / book? Many have read Hasting’s book, which seemed even handed, but perhaps it was hugely biased. This would have been an excellent opportunity to hear from Gen McCrystal his side of the story. This situation is akin to interviewing Gen Petraues without discussing his forced retirement related to the scandal involving his biographer etc… In that you are super well read, I have to assume that you were well aware of the “downfall” of Stan McCrystal, and such I’m… disappointed that you didn’t bring up this important area of discussion. With that being said, continue with the excellent work / service you’re providing for all of us.

The Officer in question is Billy Mitchell, a champion of Air Power who was with the Army Air Corp. The B-25 Mitchell, twin engine bomber, used during WWII was named for him. Copy and pasting a section from Wikipedia.

William “Billy” Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.[1]

Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict’s end, commanded all American air combat units in that country. After the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships designed to test the idea. The tests, conducted off Cape Hatteras resulted in the sinking of the obsolete USS Iowa, and 4 WWI German Battleships.

He antagonized many people in the Army with his arguments and criticism and, in 1925, was returned from appointment as a brigadier general to his permanent rank of Colonel. Later that year, he was court-martialed for insubordination after accusing Army and Navy leaders of an “almost treasonable administration of the national defense”[2] for investing in battleships instead of aircraft carriers. He resigned from the service shortly afterward.

Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a Major General. He is also the only individual after whom a type of American military aircraft, the North American B-25 Mitchell, is named. B-25 Mitchells were used in the WWII Raid on Toko by General James Doolittle.

Good site. I always get inspired to do better and beore disciplined. Both hood men. Thank you for what you both do.