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What this article describes is mostly Boydian martial philosophy. Though clausewitz, sun tzu and Genghis Kahn comes into play also. John Boyd was a US air forc

What this article describes is mostly Boydian martial philosophy. Though clausewitz, sun tzu and Genghis Kahn comes into play also. John Boyd was a US air force colonel who essentially reinvented modern warfare. Instead of attacks based on massive force, his philosophy was based on controlling the flow and tempo of battle. Controlling your adversaries ability to understand and react to the ever changing world - eventually folding himself inside out as the basketball coach did. Similarly the wargame scenario is classic boyd too. Change the game, keep adversary off balance, you win. Everyone should absolutely read "A discourse on winning and losing.". Everything the current dotcom wunderkids/bloggers are saying on blogs is covered in more detail and more clearly in boyd's writings. Probably the best book on the subject currently. Not an easy read though. http://www.amazon.com/Science-Strategy-War-Strategic-History/dp/0415459524/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241492256&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Science-Strategy-War-Strategic-History...

skmurphy 18y ago
There is a good collection of free material here on Boyd and maneuver warfare at http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/boyd-and-military-strategy/ http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/boyd-... A good one page business summary is at http://ceo-notes.us/boydcycles2.htm http://ceo-notes.us/boydcycles2.htm For some background on the Osinga book see http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/5555.html http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/5555.html and the thesis at http://chicagoboyz.net/blogfiles/OsingaBoydThesis.pdf http://chicagoboyz.net/blogfiles/OsingaBoydThesis.pdf that was revised into the book. Boyd didn't invent these concepts--which were certainly part of the principles of blitzkrieg warfare used by the Germans in WW2 and by many others--but he codified them.
- spitfire 18y ago
  It is true boyd didn't invent any of this (excepting Energy Maneuverability theory), he just codified it brought vast amounts of knowledge together in the same place and made it accessible. Something that hadn't been done before. d-n-i is chuck spinney's site, I can spend hours reading stuff on there. He's one of the fighter mafia who brought you the f-16, the A-10 and the f-15. That ceo notes website is horrible though. As are most "business" reinterpretations of boyd's work it gets it all wrong. The OODA cycle is not a loop. It's very easy to demonstrate this - Have you ever thought "I'm missing something here."? if you have you've gone through observe-orient-decide and decided to go back to observe or orient. When possible it's usually best to go straight to the source for information rather than some 3rd rate "brief" version. Avoid pseudo-intellectual bloggers/business guru's whenever possible.

skmurphy 18y ago

There is a good collection of free material here on Boyd and maneuver warfare at http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/boyd-and-military-strategy/ http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/boyd-... A good one page business summary is at http://ceo-notes.us/boydcycles2.htm http://ceo-notes.us/boydcycles2.htm For some background on the Osinga book see http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/5555.html http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/5555.html and the thesis at http://chicagoboyz.net/blogfiles/OsingaBoydThesis.pdf http://chicagoboyz.net/blogfiles/OsingaBoydThesis.pdf that was revised into the book. Boyd didn't invent these concepts--which were certainly part of the principles of blitzkrieg warfare used by the Germans in WW2 and by many others--but he codified them.

spitfire 18y ago
It is true boyd didn't invent any of this (excepting Energy Maneuverability theory), he just codified it brought vast amounts of knowledge together in the same place and made it accessible. Something that hadn't been done before. d-n-i is chuck spinney's site, I can spend hours reading stuff on there. He's one of the fighter mafia who brought you the f-16, the A-10 and the f-15. That ceo notes website is horrible though. As are most "business" reinterpretations of boyd's work it gets it all wrong. The OODA cycle is not a loop. It's very easy to demonstrate this - Have you ever thought "I'm missing something here."? if you have you've gone through observe-orient-decide and decided to go back to observe or orient. When possible it's usually best to go straight to the source for information rather than some 3rd rate "brief" version. Avoid pseudo-intellectual bloggers/business guru's whenever possible.