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"When John Boyd, the brilliant / irascible military strategist, developed the OODA loop, he worked within the limits of jet fighter dogfights." Boyd is a super
by jph 1y ago
"When John Boyd, the brilliant / irascible military strategist, developed the OODA loop, he worked within the limits of jet fighter dogfights."
Boyd is a superb recommendation for startup programmers to read. Boyd and the OODA loop can completely transform teams who aim to build software quickly.
My OODA loop notes for tech teams are here:
https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/ooda-loop https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/ooda-loop
- kqr 1y agoMaybe you're the right person to clear this up. Ages ago I read in a HN comment that the OODA loop is often misunderstood to be a sequence of steps, rather than something more continuous? And that people's explanations of it are very different from what Boyd had in mind. People treat it more as a Shewhart PDSA cycle rather than the integrated, concurrent dynamic process Boyd described it as. Since then I've avoided reading others' re-explanations of it, and instead tried to find any original writing from Boyd on it, to shape my own understanding of it before corrupting it with others' misunderstandings. The problem is I have been unable to find any original Boyd writing on it. Could you guide me in the right direction?
- aspenmayer 1y agoNot OP. Have you perused these references from the Wikipedia page for OODA loop? The reference to a “supposed slide set” sounds interesting; perhaps that is what you’re alluding to regarding source material being hard to find? Boyd, John R. (3 September 1976). Destruction and Creation (PDF). U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Destruction_%26_Creation.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Destruct... Boyd, John, R. (28 June 1995). "The Essence of Winning and Losing". danford.net. A supposed five-slide set by Boyd. https://danford.net/boyd/essence.htm https://danford.net/boyd/essence.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
- aspenmayer 1y agoAn interesting video from another time this came up on HN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdK4y6O-llE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdK4y6O-llE > OODA Loop & Evolutionary Epistemology of John Boyd by Chuck Spinney From this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26466750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26466750 They also mention a video by Chet Richards and how it relates OODA to business context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDhznBtN24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDhznBtN24 The Q&A with both Chet Richards and Chuck Spinney is also worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfbPoDuEwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfbPoDuEwg
- ezymandias 1y agohttps://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Books/B_0151_Boyd_Discourse_Winning_Losing.PDF https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Books/B_...
- bnug 1y agohttps://www.coljohnboyd.com/ https://www.coljohnboyd.com/
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- nottorp 1y agoEven the agile goals make sense, but when people read the description they turn it into a meaningless ritual. Same for your OODA loop and anything supposed to improve your efficiency.
- Grosvenor 1y agoChet Richards' Boyd material here including all his presentations. https://slightlyeastofnew.com/439-2/ https://slightlyeastofnew.com/439-2/ Patterns of conflict presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phm0Y5mFz1g&pp=ygUjSm9obiBCb3lkIFBhdHRlcm5zIG9mIGNvbmZsaWN0IHBhcnQ%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phm0Y5mFz1g&pp=ygUjSm9obiBCb...
- bellofont 1y agoThe OODA loop is great, but Boyd has so much more brilliant stuff for people willing to put in the effort. OODA loop gets you the heart of his thought, but if you really want to understand him read a transcript of "Patterns of Conflict." Osinga's "Science, Strategy, and War" is also a superb summary of Boyd's thought, although I'm partial to "Patterns."