Transcript

00:00:00Have you seen this chart before?
00:00:05I have seen that chart.
00:00:06I'll explain it to you.
00:00:07So it's the prevalence of violence perpetrated by IQ standard deviation, so 70 to 79, 80
00:00:19to 89, all the way up.
00:00:20And basically it's asking the following question, have you been in a physical fight or deliberately
00:00:27hit anyone in the past five years?
00:00:29That's the question.
00:00:30And the prevalence as a percentage is linear going down.
00:00:36And when you get to the middle of the distribution, it's somewhere between 11.4 and 7.9%.
00:00:41So what's that?
00:00:42Let's call it 10%, something like that.
00:00:4410% of people with 100 IQ have hit somebody or been in a physical fight within the last
00:00:50five years.
00:00:50And it goes down and down.
00:00:52But if you're talking about wanting somebody who has got quite elite mental capacities as
00:00:58well, 5.2% between 110 and 119, 2.9% between 120 and 129.
00:01:07And I saw this tweet that said, the percentage of guys with 130 plus IQ who both enjoy books
00:01:12and bar fights is incredibly small.
00:01:14And that is why you can't mass produce elite special operators for the military.
00:01:21Yeah, it tracks.
00:01:23I don't have 130 IQ for sure, but I do like reading books and punch people in the face for
00:01:28sure.
00:01:29Nothing wrong with that.
00:01:31Nothing wrong with that.
00:01:33They're way more constrained than you would imagine.
00:01:36And then sometimes they, um, a lot of times you don't want them to be like, to me, my special
00:01:44operations guys don't have flat top haircuts.
00:01:46They don't blouse their boots.
00:01:48They don't say, sir.
00:01:48They don't salute.
00:01:49They have all the ability to do those things, but the job's filthy.
00:01:52Like why would, why would I, I don't want a Ken doll doing that job.
00:01:55Is it seen as sort of unnecessary, uh, pump and circumstance and, uh, ritual that doesn't
00:02:07contribute to the outcome, like to, to jump through those hoops, to do the.
00:02:12Oh, you mean play the song and dance?
00:02:14Yeah, of course.
00:02:15Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I know.
00:02:16So the clean shaven, the no tattoos and stuff like that.
00:02:20They only do that as punishment.
00:02:21Anytime anybody does anything wrong, cut your hair, shave your face.
00:02:24It's why we hate it.
00:02:25That's why most guys, when they get out, they grow a beard, grow their hair out.
00:02:27They're like, I am sick of this.
00:02:28I'm never doing that again.
00:02:29Okay.
00:02:30They run that for a year and then they shave it all and whatever.
00:02:33They go back to normal.
00:02:35But no, I mean.
00:02:36It's the, you can't tell me what to wear mum equivalent of being in the special forces.
00:02:40Have you ever seen the meme?
00:02:41It's got a bunch of green berries sitting around, hands in pockets, hands in pockets.
00:02:45The only reason I went this selection, I want to be able to put my hands in my pockets
00:02:48and spit Copenhagen on your floor and grow a beard.
00:02:50And no, like I, I want to be a one percenter.
00:02:53Mm-hmm.
00:02:53Yeah.
00:02:54And you're allowed to do special things.
00:02:55You said, uh, it's more lawless than people might realize.
00:02:58What do you mean by that?
00:03:02Everything's black and white.
00:03:04Special operations find a way to live in that gray area, but gray area navigation tours run
00:03:09in every 30 minutes.
00:03:11We will find a way to navigate through the gray area to get to the end state.
00:03:14As long as we know what the why is, what we have to get accomplished, we'll find a way
00:03:17to get there.
00:03:19And sometimes it's not pretty, but I mean, I'm pretty honest, I'll break every rule in the book
00:03:24right now if it puts a team in a better position, even if it puts myself at a disadvantage or
00:03:29threatens my career, maybe even my life.
00:03:32If it's good for the group, I'll do it anyway.
00:03:34But not lawless in a sense, like people don't, people aren't murdering people.
00:03:39There's no rape, not a lot of drugs anymore.
00:03:41Like, but not, uh, there's not a whole lot of guys who transition to be police officers.
00:03:49Too constraining?
00:03:50Too constraining.
00:03:52I don't want to be constrained.
00:03:53I, I don't like it because everybody asked me when I got out, like, well, I don't want
00:03:56to be a cop.
00:03:57You can go to FBI.
00:03:59Absolutely not.
00:04:00I love those guys.
00:04:01They're amazing.
00:04:02Nothing but respect.
00:04:03I can't do that job.
00:04:04I'm in the gray area too much.
00:04:06You understand?
00:04:07But I'm open and honest about it.
00:04:08I don't hide that a bit.
00:04:08I think this is what I was trying to get at before when I said, um, the modern world being
00:04:12incompatible with some of the ugly parts of war, that, um, if you're focused on outcome,
00:04:18if you're focused on the ends, the means can sometimes become up for debate and the ends
00:04:27are often not scrutinized, but the means are by people.
00:04:30Does that make sense?
00:04:31Mm-hmm.
00:04:31Yeah.
00:04:34And I'm trying to find a way to word this.
00:04:42I've never seen anything in my military career that I would even put morally questionable on
00:04:47any level, not for a cop, not for a fireman, not for a school teacher, everything has always
00:04:51been above board, but there are times where you just want to hoist a black flag and start
00:04:56slitting throats.
00:04:57You just do.
00:04:58Right.
00:04:59I can't believe we're going to put this dude in the back of his helicopter and let him
00:05:02lose.
00:05:02I, I, I can't believe we're going to let him do it.
00:05:05Because you know that he's a bad guy.
00:05:06Yeah.
00:05:07Or some of the things you see, some of the things you know that you're doing, you have,
00:05:11because it's not an assault on you, but some of the stuff they do with children.
00:05:14It's just, it's so disgusting that if I, if I didn't have that flag in my arm and I was
00:05:20just a tourist, I'd kill you.
00:05:22If I get away with it right now, I just kill you.
00:05:24But because I have this flag on my shoulder, now I can't.
00:05:26And now I resent the flag because I can't do to you what I know needs to happen to you.
00:05:29How does that feel, that systemic constraint when you've got righteous anger?
00:05:40It's hard, man.
00:05:41It is.
00:05:42It's hard, especially when you've lost friends or, you know, extortion one, seven happened
00:05:49in August of extortion 17, had a whole troop get killed.
00:05:55Kilo got shot down, killed everybody on board.
00:05:5731 guys having to back those guys up on deployment in that exact same place, living in their beds.
00:06:03If I'm being told, I just wanted to kill everybody and to not be able to do it.
00:06:08It's hard because you have the opportunity.
00:06:11It's like, he's not doing anything bad now.
00:06:16Okay.
00:06:17I guess I got to put you in handcuffs or you're on a helo, drop you off here.
00:06:19They'll put you in a detention center for 10 days.
00:06:21They'll release you.
00:06:22Like, okay, they wouldn't do that to me.
00:06:26If they wrapped me up and put me in handcuffs, they would saw my head off in 15 minutes.
00:06:29Now we all know it.
00:06:31It's not fair.
00:06:33Have you been tracking this fallout after Rob was on Andy's show talking about the Osama raid?
00:06:41Yeah.
00:06:42What do you make of that?
00:06:47I hate the fact we're even talking about it, if I'm being honest.
00:06:50Like, they did such a good job about not talking about it.
00:06:53I mean, Rob was my first team leader.
00:06:56So, I know Rob.
00:06:59I owe a lot to Rob because Rob drafted me and brought me in.
00:07:06I wish nobody would have ever said a word.
00:07:08When they left to go on the raid, I didn't know where they were going.
00:07:11Were you on compound or whatever it's called?
00:07:13I was in his team.
00:07:14Yeah.
00:07:15So, you didn't get chosen?
00:07:16No.
00:07:17Motherfuckers.
00:07:17Two juniors.
00:07:18Yeah.
00:07:19How?
00:07:20You know, we'll say we rack all the teams.
00:07:22We'll say there's seven guys.
00:07:24One to seven.
00:07:24They took twos and above and took them all from every team.
00:07:28Oh, interesting.
00:07:29It's the first time they ever did it.
00:07:31So, it's closer to being in.
00:07:34How many people in total are?
00:07:37Can't talk about it.
00:07:38Okay, fine.
00:07:39We'll talk about it off screen.
00:07:40Way less than you think.
00:07:41Cool.
00:07:42So, it's closer to me, what it sounds like.
00:07:44I'm loving the sports analogy.
00:07:46It's more like having a league of teams.
00:07:51And then you've got the Steph Curry or the Kevin Durant from each team.
00:07:56Yep.
00:07:56And then you're able to take the top filtering.
00:08:00Does that not create, surely that must create a-
00:08:03A lot of animosity, a lot of resentment.
00:08:06Some of that, but complex.
00:08:08Yeah.
00:08:08Because you know, hang on, who the fuck?
00:08:10What?
00:08:11I'm number fucking six, am I?
00:08:13More so, complexity that the verticals of the teams have got culture baked in.
00:08:21And as you start to take people, I mean, perfect example.
00:08:26When players come together to play for their national team, when they've played for rivalrous local teams, that doesn't always work well.
00:08:37Like, and sometimes a team which has the maximum player stats for each individual player, but not the cohesion, doesn't necessarily perform as well as a vertical team that does have the cohesion with somebody that's got less experience or whatever.
00:08:56Look at me, sat in the stands talking about how the special forces should be around.
00:09:02I mean, that's how it's always been around.
00:09:04Take a team, take a troop, take a squadron, whatever it is, and you go out and do the thing.
00:09:08They cherry-picked from inside of the same squadron, and none of us knew.
00:09:12I don't know.
00:09:13If we knew they were spinning up on something, and they would tell us, like, it's some bullshit training mission, like, it was my first cycle.
00:09:19I had just gotten through selection, and all of them were like, enjoy your first rotation.
00:09:23He's like, you ain't missing shit.
00:09:25Trust me.
00:09:25This is going to be a dog and pony.
00:09:27We're going to waste our time, and nothing's going to happen.
00:09:29I promise you.
00:09:30About five days before they went to go do the thing, we all came in, had a big blowout.
00:09:36You know, dudes are buying new watches, buying $1,000 sunglasses, because they didn't think they were going to come home.
00:09:40We all thought they were going to go get Gaddafi.
00:09:43So when Obama walked out and did the Newton's announcement, I was in my living room with my wife, with my shooting buddy, on speakerphone, and as soon as they said it, screaming, like, so proud.
00:09:53Because you knew that that was-
00:09:54Oh, yeah.
00:09:55Oh, so happy.
00:09:56Never been more proud of my fucking life.
00:09:58Oh, my God.
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00:11:01Thank you very much for tuning in.
00:11:03If you enjoyed that clip, you will love the full-length episode in all of its glory.
00:11:07Right here.
00:11:09Come on.
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Key Takeaway

The rare combination of elite cognitive capacity and a propensity for physical conflict prevents the mass production of special operations warfighters.

Highlights

  • Ten percent of individuals with an IQ of 100 have engaged in a physical fight within a five-year period.

  • The prevalence of individuals who combine an IQ of 130 or higher with a propensity for physical conflict is extremely small.

  • Special operations forces operate in gray areas and frequently bypass standard military rituals like flat-top haircuts and saluting during daily duties.

  • The United States military raid on Osama bin Laden's compound involved cherry-picking top-performing personnel from multiple units rather than deploying a single standard team.

  • Unit cohesion established through shared team culture often outweighs raw individual performance statistics in high-stakes military operations.

Timeline

Cognitive Distribution and Combat Prevalence

  • Approximately ten percent of people with an average IQ of 100 participate in physical fights over a five-year period.
  • The percentage of physically combative individuals decreases as IQ levels rise into the higher brackets.
  • The scarcity of individuals possessing both high intelligence and physical combat readiness restricts the mass production of elite military operators.

Data tracking physical fights shows a linear decline in combat prevalence as standard deviation increases. While middle-tier IQ individuals engage in physical altercations regularly, individuals with cognitive scores exceeding 130 rarely combine intellectual pursuits with physical violence. This psychological and cognitive limitation explains why military organizations cannot easily scale up their elite operator numbers.

Operational Autonomy and Cultural Nonconformity

  • Special operations personnel reject traditional military appearance standards and superficial rituals during active deployments.
  • Operational success in special forces relies on navigating complex gray areas rather than following rigid procedural rules.
  • Systemic constraints and rules of engagement create intense frustration for operators dealing with adversaries who operate outside normal ethical bounds.

Elite units prioritize mission outcomes over bureaucratic display, viewing clean-shaven faces and uniform blousing primarily as disciplinary measures. Operating in complex environments requires breaking rigid rules when team safety or mission success demands it. Strict rules of engagement often prevent operators from delivering immediate justice to individuals who commit atrocities against children, generating deep internal friction.

Selection Dynamics and Team Cohesion

  • The raid on Osama bin Laden's compound utilized top-tier personnel cherry-picked across multiple different teams.
  • Assembling top individual performers from rival units creates significant complexity regarding team culture and internal resentment.
  • Established squadron cohesion often outperforms a newly formed roster of maximum individual statistics.

High-profile missions involve pooling the highest-ranking performers from various teams within a squadron, breaking standard deployment patterns. While this selective pooling creates national success, it introduces internal friction and challenges established team dynamics. Pre-existing cultural cohesion within vertical units often delivers superior performance compared to ad-hoc assemblies of elite individuals.

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