Why I REJECTED My CIA Training When I Went Through The Farm

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Why did the host reject the CIA training he received at The Farm?

Andrew Bustamante 0:00

When I actually joined CIA and I saw that that human beings work the same way, right? It and I'll be the first to admit, CIA trained me and I rejected the training. I was like, This is You rejected it. Oh yeah. I was like, this is this is baloney. Just like you are now, right? You're like, oh no, there's more to it. It's more nuanced. It's more complicated. What about this? And what about the American dream? And what about all but like I used to I totally was in the same boat. And not just me. Most of the recruits were like, What? No, people can't be that simple. People can't be that stupid. People can't be that predictable. And we go through this training process and we we exercise the skills. And even when you go through the training part of the farm and you you learn the skills and you exercise the skills against role players and against, you know, senior intelligence officers and you're like, Okay, I'm I'm dancing the dance, but no way is this real.

Andrew Bustamante 0:52

It's kind of like learning a foreign language. I don't know if you've have you learned a foreign language?

0:55

I used to speak Italian really well.

Andrew Bustamante 0:57

So you learn a foreign language and the f and as you learn it, you're thinking to yourself, really, right? Like, oh, it it's just, it's not this word, it's that word. It's not this word, it's that word. You just you learn it based off of technicality. But then you go to the country where it's spoken and you realize, oh shit, this isn't a technicality. Like this is a real skill. It becomes real. It becomes personal. You see your own flaws and your own uh misunderstandings in the language. Because even though you may be getting straight A's in Italian for three years in school, once you fucking land in Rome, you're like, I don't know how to speak this language. Like

1:34

Yeah.

Andrew Bustamante 1:34

They

1:35

sing it. It's a natural it's a natural flow. You can't be translating in your head. Hundred percent agree.

Andrew Bustamante 1:40

Yeah.

How does the host compare CIA training to learning a foreign language?

Andrew Bustamante 1:40

So anybody who's had a language experience knows what that's like. Yes. That is exactly what it's like to go to CIA. You learn the technicalities of human recruitment, you learn the technicalities of motivations and vulnerabilities. You learn the technicalities of of getting people to exchange uh information of value for assets of value. You go through it and you you learn the words. And then you actually deploy and it becomes super real. And you're like, holy shit, this was really how it works. And then when you come back from an operation You're still in operation mode. So you come back to the United States. You come back to CIA headquarters a lot of times. And you still need to get shit done. So then you start using the same skills that you used in the abroad here at home.

Andrew Bustamante 2:23

And they work here too. And now you can like

2:25

what kinds of skills?

Andrew Bustamante 2:26

Like when it comes to manipulating a budget and finance person to approving your expense sheet faster than somebody else who turned their expense sheet in earlier than you did. It's the same process as getting someone to give you secrets overseas, right? It's all about exchanging value, it's all about building rapport, it's all about developing social capital and leveraging that social capital. It's about understanding what makes people feel excited and what makes them feel guilty, what makes them feel powerful and what makes them feel weak. And then like pushing the chips on the board around just enough. It's like the the Zen raking garden thing. That's exactly what it's like for every individual. You rake this garden for that person and then you

Andrew Bustamante 3:01

You erase the garden and you rake this garden for that person and you erase the garden, it's it's It's all the same rake, it's all the same square, it's all the same sand. It just literally works on every person. But you rejected What CIA was teaching you. When I was when I was in the agency, correct. Yes. Correct. Like I learned it, I believed it wasn't true. I tried to fight against it. I tried to make it work my own way. I was not popular at CIA. That's why I love being not popular out of CIA. It's like fucking no matter where I go, nobody's gonna be like.