In a recent episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast featuring former CIA Covert Intelligence Officer Andrew Bustamante, the conversation touched on numerous aspects of intelligence work.
During the episode, Fridman posed Bustamante a question: “What is one spy trick you would teach everyone that they can use to improve their life instantly?”
According to Bustamante, most people view the world through their own perception. His stepfather used to tell him that “perception is reality,” a notion Bustamante has disagreed with since he was 14 years old.
“Perception is your interpretation of the world around you. But it’s unique only to you. There’s no advantage in your perception,” Bustamante explained during the podcast.
The key to gaining an advantage in any situation, whether in career advancement, sales, negotiations, or personal relationships, lies in shifting from perception to perspective. Perspective involves the art of observing the world from outside yourself.
Bustamante outlined a simple approach: When interacting with someone, ask yourself critical questions about their experience. What is their life like? What are they feeling right now? Are they comfortable or uncomfortable? What stressor did they wake up to this morning? What worry will they carry to bed tonight?
“When you shift places and get out of your own perception and into someone else’s perspective, now you’re thinking like them, which is giving you an informational advantage,” Bustamante said. “Everyone else out there is trapped in their own perception, not thinking about a different perspective. So immediately you have superior information, superior positioning.”
The applications of this technique are quite many. Bustamante emphasized that using perspective with your boss can change your career trajectory. Applied to a spouse, it can transform a marriage.
“More than just feelings, actual tactical actions,” Bustamante noted. “If you can get into someone’s head, left brain and right brain, feelings and logic, you can start anticipating what actions they’re gonna take next.”
In operational intelligence, this ability to understand both emotional and logical drivers allows officers to direct the actions others will take by essentially telling them the story already in their own heads.
According to Bustamante, approximately 95 percent of what he learned at the CIA transfers directly to civilian life. Whether in business negotiations, family dynamics, or chance encounters with strangers, the ability to step outside your own viewpoint is a powerful tool.
