Thank you Jocko for hosting me and for your innumerable insights into self and group leadership and the human condition. I’ve gleaned (and applied) so much useful knowledge from you over the years. You’re an “n of 1” as we say of the best in science. Gratitude and respect.

"High levels of dopamine achieved without effort will destroy a person." ~Andrew Huberman

I wrote down some notes I took while listening to the podcast.

- Forward movement reduces amygdala response because it is incompatible with the fear response.
- High body temperature wakes you up (Cold showers signal your brain and body to warm up)
- Cold body temperature reduced your body and brain activity
- When doing cold showers or whatever spikes the tone of your orthosympathetic system, you encounter "walls", which are the very strong urge you feel to get out of that uncomfortable situation. The first wall is the bigger, the more you encounter the smaller they become and the further apart they get.
- Panorama vision (the opposite of intense focus) raises your parasympathetic tone calming you down.
- Adenosine builds up during the day and increases your parasympathetic tone to the point that you need to sleep. Sleep lowers adenosine, and coffee blocks adenosine. If you want to avoid an afternoon crash from coffee in the morning, drink it 60-90 minutes after waking up so that adenosine has cleared out. Exercise clears out adenosine.
- Dopamine is not associated with pleasure, but rather with motivation, desire, and pursuit. Dopamine peaks imply a crash afterward, so be careful with your peaks. During a dopamine crash, you get a release of dynorphin, which mediates pain and motivates you to get going and pursue your goals. Whenever you get a dopamine crash, don't try to spike it again, rather wait till it recalibrates on its own, chop wood, and carry water. Remember that dopamine is a non-infinite but renewable resource.
- A forward center of mass attitude induces a rise in testosterone -> effort feels better.
- If after a period of high effort you relax completely, you increase the risk of infection because you need a certain level of stress to retain immunity.
- Serotonin and oxytocin are the neurochemicals of feeling good for what you already have -> gratitude journals increase their release.
- 10-30 minutes a day of doing nothing -> Deliberate decompression
- Ratio of inhale time to exhale time can modulate the Ortho / Parasympathetic tone.
- Unearned pleasure will destroy your life. Put some effort in front of your pleasure.
- Unpredictable intermittent rewards -> the most powerful motivating drive
- The ability to win over limbic friction -> one of the most important tools for success.
- Always try to couple pleasure with the effort it required, this creates the right mindset.
- Leaders can act as a forebrain for other people's limbic systems, helping them win over their limbic friction.
- Being a bit angry actually releases dopamine (twitter wars)
- We have two spotlights of attention. Real focus happens when both are placed upon a subject.
- Writing full sentences is hard work but it raises the ability to move the spotlight of focus.
- Over time the dopamine system can get woven into the systems that regulate effort.
- Think of effort as "This is growing me" -> by thinking this you release dopamine during your efforts. The more limbic friction, the bigger forebrain control you gain if you win over it.
- Dopamine gives you the urge for action, and serotonin gives you calm and creativity.
- You have two big phases during your awake hours:
1) The first is from 0-9 hours after waking up. In this phase, you have high dopamine, high epinephrine, and high cortisol brain state, which is the best for linear work.
2) The second is from 10-16 hours after waking up. In this phase, the best work you can do is creative work, non-linear, and more exploratory.
- Work regularly, have random rewards.
- The darker and colder the room, the better the sleep. For some people light can get through your eyelids.
- One hour before you sleep you will be very awake, it is normal.
- Light suppresses melatonin, so don't use screens if you wake up in the middle of the night, it will deplete your melatonin.
- Find non-destructive ways to recover yourself -> long hikes, trekking, swimming, watching a movie, doing something creative, spending time with people
- Time together in relationships should be calibrated with time away, because too much serotonin will reduce the dopamine associated to that relationship. Serotonin and dopamine are antagonistic to each other. Missing someone makes the dopamine system ready for release.
- Be careful with how much you attach your dopamine to something that is not under your complete control.
- Addiction is characterized by a progressive narrowing of things that bring you pleasure. A good life involves a progressive expansion of things that bring you pleasure.
- Giving to get is not a good attitude, pure giving without expectations is better.

My heroes basically tell me what to do with my night and morning:

1. Jordan Peteron - Clean your room
2. Andrew Huberman - Turn off the lights, and set your alarm.
3. Jocko Willink - Wake up boyo! And get some!

I am so glad Jocko asked Andrew to talk about himself as a person. HubermanLab Podcast has changed my life for the better and hearing more about the man that is spreading that knowledge means a lot.

5 hour podcast with Huberman? Let's do this 🤘

Huberman is a great example of not letting past circumstances dictate your future. Guy had every opportunity to give up but he persevered and now he is an incredible positive influence on the world.

Love how Jocko and Echo brought out a more bro side of Andrew. Very interesting to hear his background too. Solid dude

"when you are defeated your testosterone is lowered."  Jocko is like: "Cheeeeeeck," thinking "I will defeat my opponents until they change gender"

“Develop great habits, learn how to toggle between work and rest find non destructive ways to renew yourself”

Can we all just agree that all these amazing friendships and interviews over this decade is thanks to Joe Rogan.

Huberman is an animal 😂 5 hours pouring out top tier goods . Legend

It’s beautiful how he acknowledges all the people that helped him during his life. Shows you how you can have a lasting positive effect on people without even knowing.

I love Jockos enthusiasm — when he realized he’d been teaching people about and benefiting from purposeful panoramic vision & it’s backed by a neurological pathway — it is wild. It IS wild. We are an incredible species.

My personal definition of a wise man:
An old fool who survived long enough to tell the story in hopes that a younger man doesn’t repeat the same mistakes.

nooo way you got Huberman on, can't wait to get home to listen to this masterpiece of a podcast...

0:00:00 intro
   - 0:07:51 widening the visual aperture calms you down + slowing the perception of time
0:11:25 Andrew Huberman's Background
1:12:35 modulator and mediators in biology
1:14:02 sleep
   - 1:14:40 get some natural light in the first hour of waking up (cortisol pulse). 1:39:14 and afternoon (second circadian clock)
         - 1:16:09 temperature rhythm
         - 1:19:02 cooling body temperature and falling to sleep
         - 1:22:37 sunlight and dopamine and testosteronal (both through eye and skin)
         - 1:24:48 myopia reverse/slowdown
         - 1:30:27, 1:38:21 what time you should get natural light (before yellow-blue contrast)
   - 01:16:04, 1:31:10, 2:01:50 temperature rhythm
         - 1:31:41 in the morning: view sunlight, exercise, cold shower
         - 1:39:07, 2:01:18 in the evening: lower the temperature, take a sauna (1:40:42) / hot shower
1:26:22 dilating the gaze and panoramic vision (view the horizon once a while/ go outside)
1:27:25 self-generation optic flow, reducing fear, amygdala.
1:33:30 cold shower and enhancing mood, boost adrenaline, long release of dopamine
   - 01:43:00 pulses of adrenaline
1:45:05 non sleep deep rest NSDR
   - 1:45:35 Yoga Nedra
   - 2:18:10
1:47:17, 2:10:40 autonomic/sympathetic nervous system (triggering adrenaline)
1:50:02 parasympathetic nervous system
   - adenosine, caffeine: when waking up avoid having a caffein for 90 min (do exercise instead)
   - 2:15:00 parasympathetic hormones? serotonin, oxytocin, prolactin
1:52:39 about dopamine
   - dynorphin: when dopamine goes rapidly up it drops below base line resulting in sense of pain
   - do not stack dopamine (dopamine fasting??) you will crash out after a while.
   - after big win sometime we crash (do not pursue more dopamine 2:09:45)
   - 2:02:47 pornography overwhelms dopamine system
   - 2:17:31 dopamine burnout
   - 2:18:41 social media, rest, addiction and depletion of dopamine system
   - 2:31:00 make dopamine more effortful. to not deplete your dopamine system
2:07:49 testosterones
2:11:53, 2:25:41 breathing patterns
   - 2:28:49 running side stitches
2:15:56 relationship between hormones, balance between balance and pleasure
2:22:44 time perception (dopamine and serotonin)
2:24:59, 2:43:41-2:50:55 (important) limbic friction (being very driven person)
2:37:14 random intermittent reinforcement (random reward)

You know you’re a Hube fan when a 5 hour podcast doesn’t feel long enough 😂

Hey Jocko & Echo, just wanted say thank you for the captions. Some podcasts don't include them and it can be tough for people who are hearing-impaired, so just wanted you to know I appreciate it.

Oh boy. Echo Charles, my lad, you're gonna have a field day with all the clips you can get from this podcast. This podcast has more gold than a vault, really outstanding. Please have more people like this in the future!