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The James Altucher Show

Decision Making at Mach-2: An Air Force Fighter Pilot Teaches *You* To Think Clearly | Hasard Lee

The James Altucher Show

James Altucher

Education, Business

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2023

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Small mistakes can have big consequences."When Hasard Lee was learning to dogfight in the F-16 fighter jet, he made a minor error while maneuvering the plane vertically and his airspeed dropped to 0. With afterburners fully engaged - sending a 30 ft flame from the back of the plane - he and the $70m jet were going backward. The nose of the plane suddenly snapped downward, and - at negative 2.4 G's - he's being pulled upward with over 500 pounds of force. With alarms blaring, he's heading into an out-of-control spin toward the Earth. 5 seconds before impact, Lee was able to stabilize the craft and regain airspeed. Based on years of experience making high-stakes, split-second decisions as a fighter pilot and later awarded 'Top Instructor Pilot of the Year' for the Air Force's largest F-16 Combat Wing, Hasard has spent the last six years cementing his knowledge in the new book The Art of Clear Thinking, which teaches readers to make clear decisions in their everyday life.Lee has also amassed a YouTube following that's watched over 10 million times each month and a 290 million person reach across social media in just two years.In today's conversation, James and Hasard pivot between death-defying stories and the principles that help make rational clear-headed decisions to avoid disaster and succeed.Buy The Art of Clear Thinking here from your favorite retailer!Check out  Hasard's WebsiteWatch Hasard's YouTube channel, (10+ million views every month!)------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook  ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This was an intense podcast.

0:08.0

Imagine you're a fighter pilot and you're in a dog fight with another fighter pilot.

0:13.4

Maybe you're shooting at each other and they're the enemy or whatever.

0:16.4

And they go vertical because they're going to try to climb over you and then shoot down

0:20.1

so they get leverage over you.

0:21.8

So you follow them going vertical to try to go vertical faster than them, but you make

0:26.8

a small miscalculation.

0:29.0

You're going over a thousand miles an hour and maybe your miscalculation is your

0:33.6

seven miles per hour off and suddenly in the middle of your vertical, you stall and your

0:38.8

plane starts spiraling down at a control.

0:42.7

You lose 5,000 feet of altitude in a matter of seconds and you have to make a decision

0:48.8

within one second whether you're going to eject or try to hold on to the plane and survive.

0:53.9

If you make the wrong decision, you're going to die.

0:56.7

If you make another wrong decision, you're going to lose a $70 million plane and you still

1:01.2

might die.

1:02.2

And what is going wrong with the plane?

1:04.6

How do you fix it?

1:06.0

So, Hasser Lee wrote a book which I really loved.

1:10.7

I read the book before his team even reached out for him to go on the podcast.

1:14.7

It was a really intense book.

1:16.5

A lot of great stories, but it's called the art of clear thinking and you don't have to be

1:21.2

a fighter pilot to understand the need for clear thinking.

...

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