Summary & Key Takeaways
Boyd is the biography of John Boyd, a fighter pilot and military strategist. It’s a great look into the life of someone who was brought up in a particular institution but fought against and ended up changing that institution (for the better). It’s an inspiring story and one anyone can take away lessons from.
Key Takeaways
Held on to his principles, no matter what the challenge
Was an avid reader
Tried and did things that no one thought was possible, even when he was told not to do it, because he knew it could be important
Had little competition in areas because no one else was doing what he was doing
Used reality to his advantage, didn’t try to change reality
Had a purpose and relentlessly pursued it
Hard worker, out worked everyone he could
Brought ideas from different disciplines into his area of expertise to improve it
His famous quote he would tell people trying to make a difference: “You can either be someone, or do something.”
Developed the idea of the OODA loop, Observe, Orient, Decide, and Attack
Taught his students how to think, not facts
Believed the order of importance is people, ideas, then hardware
Notes & Quotes
Advantage of hard work
“Mindful of his mother’s lesson that hard work enables one to excel over those who coast through life, John was in the pool long before other players, and he stayed long after the practice was over and they had gone.”
Desire to be somebody
“He was determined to excel although he did not yet know in what area. He only knew that he had to do something better than anyone had ever done it before. He had to show people in Erie that he was somebody.”
Using reality to his advantage
“He asked the investigating officer if the Army’s general orders were in effect…When he was told that of course the general orders were in effect, he said one of the general orders stated that the first responsibility of an officer was to take care of his men. Officers were not doing that, not if enlisted personnel were sleeping on the ground while suitable quarters stood empty.”
A man of principles
“Boyd saw himself and would continue to see himself: the man of principle battling superiors devoid of principle; the idealist fighting those of higher rank who have shirked their responsibilities; the man who puts it all on the line and, after receiving threat of dire consequences, prevails. His principles win out over his opposition’s lack of principles.”
Avid reader
“He always carried books, not just class books, but books on history and war and philosophy”
Advantages of doing something everyone isn't
“No one else in the Air Force was seeking to advance the art of air-to-air combat…Thus Boyd soon knew more about what he was teaching than did any other person in the Air Force”
Note: A good example of doing what others won’t that gives you supremacy over it
“No one could counter Boyd’s briefing because no one in the Building was doing similar work; the Pentagon had no military theorists. Boyd was out there all alone and gaining converts by the day."
Little patience for anyone not for his cause
“Like most people who find a cause, he had little patience for those who did not understand or who disagreed with what he was doing.”
He taught how to think
“What he was teaching was how to think—not just of the maneuver, but of the effect each maneuver had on airspeed what countermoves were available to an enemy pilot, how to anticipate those counters, and how to keep enough airspeed to counter the countermove.”
Talked to learn
“He talked to learn: as he went through his monologues, his thoughts bounced around, various theses were tried and rejected until finally he had gained a better understanding of whatever it was that was on his mind.”
Note: I like using this strategy as well
“The more he talked, the more he understood about what he was trying to do”
“He considered every word and every idea from every possible angle, then threw it out for discussion, argued endless hours, restructured his line of thought, and threw it out for discussion again. Creativity was painful and laborious and repetitive and detail-haunted…Boyd needed the dialectic of debate"
Drink slow
“He might eat fast, but he drank slowly. No one ever saw him drink more than one beer.”
Planned ahead
“Considering his chess-master-like ability to plan ahead and considering how the AFIT program and his follow-on assignment turned out, Boyd quite possibly outsmarted everyone, including the Air Force”
Studied across disciplines
“Boyd wanted to study industrial engineering, a broad course of study across several disciplines, and he would do it his way or not at all”
What to look for in colleagues
“What they share is that all are extraordinarily bright, all have an almost messianic desire to make a contribution to the world in which they live, all are men of probity and rectitude, and all—while independent in the extreme—are devoted followers of Boyd”
Opportunities come from unexpected places
“The opportunity came, as it almost always does, from an unexpected source and in an unexpected manner.”
Having a cause is key
“He had an idea bigger than himself—a cause. And that was what Christie wanted. A cause.”
Simpler the better
“Elegance is one of the most important attributes of an equation. The briefer and simpler an equation is, the more elegant it is.”
Use of trial and error
“He evolved his way to a design by trial and error. He did not know what he was looking for before the fact. He selected improvements as a basis for further variations and tests.”
He did his homework
“Boyd had proved he was not intimidated by rank and he knew his subject.”
“He prepared for a confrontation."
He did not bend, on anything
“The man just would not bend, even on things that did not matter to most people.”
Needed to be last man standing but that created enemies
“But to be right was not enough. He had to have a redress of grievances and he had to publicly embarrass the person who wronged him. He had to be the last man standing…But when Boyd hosed the civilian, he created another enemy”
Out-worked everyone
“His production comes from about 10% inspiration and 90% a grueling pace that his cohorts find difficult if not impossible to keep up with. He is extremely intolerant of inefficiency and those who attempt to impede his program.”
The higher the rank, the less change
“Study after study shows that the higher in rank a military officer ascends, the less likely he is to make change.”
Trying to do everything, does nothing well
“And because it was a multirole aircraft, Boyd knew it could do none of its jobs very well.”
Challenge assumptions
“You gotta challenge all assumptions. If you don’t, what is doctrine on day one becomes dogma forever after.”
New and different is feared by bureaucracy
“It was new and different. And anything new and different is feared by a bureaucracy.”
Focused on the end-user, not the technology
“Boyd was guided in his work by one simple principle: he wanted to give pilots a fighter that would outmaneuver any enemy. He did not become fixated on technology or ‘one-point’ numerical solutions.”
Fast and agile or lose
“But the company was not agile enough, could not move quickly enough, and didn’t invest enough design effort and soon was thrown out of the running.”
Importance of getting information straight
“I need the right information to separate the wheat from the chaff. Those who can’t separate the wheat from the chaff don’t matter.”
Go to the people doing the work for answers, not the managers
“The chief often followed the Franklin Roosevelt theory of management, bypassing sycophantic generals and seeking out from among relatively junior officers a few men who would tell him the truth.”
“Dozens of high-ranking officers put their fingers in the wind before they talked to him. Then they told him what they thought he wanted to hear.”
Note: the closer to power the more incentive to sugar coat things
“And because Boyd gave him straight answers, the chief came to him again and again.”
Note: truth and honesty can be a source of access
Never satisfied
“Boyd was never satisfied. He wanted every possible iteration.”
Getting credit is not how you get far
“If you insist on getting credit for the work you do, you’ll never get far in life. Don’t confuse yourself with the idea of getting credit.”
Not impressed by accolades
“The designer was giving Boyd what he thought the Air Force needed and not what Boyd wanted. The contractor apparently thought Boyd would be awed by the famous designer.”
Quicker is more important
“And in combat, quicker is more important.”
“In both instances the ability to transition quickly from one maneuver to another was a crucial factor in the victory.”
“whoever can handle the quickest rater of change is the one who survives"
Know when to act and when to hold your cards
“This knowledge gave him a big stick. Usually if a man in a bureaucracy has a big stick, he uses it. But Boyd decided to hide his. He knew there would come a time, perhaps in a year or even two years, when the stick could be used to greater advantage.”
The details matter
“But these small stitches not only make up the tapestry of a wartime Air Force base, they go to the heart of Boyd’s creative style of problem solving. They were all effective, and they all contributed to turning around an important American air base with a severe morale problem.”
Focus on a few projects
“You must understand that if you want to leave a legacy it is vital for you to make a quick decision about what you want that legacy to be…Pick a few projects and put the full weight of your office behind them. Guide the projects…Know from the very beginning that they will be your legacy. Force them through the bureaucracy.”
Use what you’ve got
“But Boyd was about to use the job as a platform from which he would rock the foundations of the Pentagon.”
To be somebody, or to do something
“To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?”
Give your opponents the benefit of the doubt
“He ordered Leopold to recompute everything as ‘best case’, that is to give the B-1 advocates the benefit of every doubt…This meant that under scrutiny, and the Air Force would indeed subject the study to the most rigorous scrutiny, the numbers would only get worse; that is, any adjustments would show only higher costs…He had presented the information in the most conservative manner possible. He had no agenda.”
Observe, Orient, Decide, Attack
“Boyd explains that in combat, both at the highest command level and at the lowest, individuals first orient themselves so they can understand the situation, then they make a decision to direct their activities, and then they take action.”
“The most amazing aspect of the OODA loop is that the losing side rarely understands what happened”
“But computer models do not take into account the single most important part of the cycle—the orientation phase, especially the implicit part of the orientation phase”
“once the process begins, it must not slow. It must continue and it must accelerate. Success is the greatest trap for the novice who properly implements the OODA Loop"
His work was fluid
“It was always fluid…Boyd never wanted to finish an intellectual effort. He made changes and those changes made him see another fallacy or another place for elaboration, and the process began all over.”
Note: he would like the internet
What you do is more important than what you say
“judge people by what they do and not what they say they will do”
Note: exactly the same as Skin in the Game
Space for opportunity
“There was no organized movement, no coalescing force. There were only small and widely scattered groups, most unaware of one another’s existence…They also needed a leader to whose flag they could rally…He must be a man of far different character than their present leaders.”
Freedom from needing nothing
“Boyd knew he had to be independent and he saw only two ways for a man to do this: he can either achieve great wealth or reduce his needs to zero. Boyd said if a man can reduce his needs to zero, he is truly free: there is nothing that can be taken from him and nothing anyone can do to hurt him.”
Note: this is exactly like Seneca said
Disciplined to find the truth
“Boyd has less formal education than did any of the Acolytes. But he was their intellectual leader—not only in the number and substance of the book he had them read, but in his passion and his obsession and his iron discipline about getting to the truth.”
Not setting goals
“he deliberately refused to set a goal. He was simply letting it carry him along.”
Innovation = synthesis of different ideas
“no one had ever linked all three, raised them to a higher level, and from them synthesized a new idea”
“As with much of Boyd’s work, the building blocks for ‘Patterns’ are mostly well-known ideas. But the synthesis of these ideas produced a reality new to the US military"
Understanding through the extremes
“If you want to understand something, take it to the extremes or examine its opposites"
Observing changes what is observed
“the process of observation changes what is being observed”
Note: from Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle
Analysis is not creativity
“Boyd thought analysis could lead to understanding but not to creativity…Washington was a city of ten thousand analysts and no synthesizers”
On creativity
“Boyd believed the very existence of a box is limiting. The box must be destroyed before there can be creation…Boyd showed how synthesis was the basis of creativity”
Keeping up with reality
“To make sure the new reality is both viable and relevant, Boyd said it must be continually refined by verifying its internal consistency and by making sure it matches up with reality”
Ambiguity = opportunity
“Boyd still believe ambiguity created opportunities for unexpected richness”
Don’t go head-to-head if at a numbers disadvantage, instead use deception, speed, and confusion
“Boyd found many such instance in history, and in these victories by numerically inferior forces he found a common thread: none of the victorious commanders threw their forces head-to-head again enemy forces…Rather, they used deception, speed, fluidity of action, and strength against weakness. They used tactics that disoriented and confused—tactics that, in Boyd’s words, caused the enemy ‘to unravel before the fight’”
Use of reading
“Boyd was doing more than reading; he was engaging von Clausewitz in combat”
Win by avoiding battle
“Boyd, borrowing from Sun Tzu, said the best commander is the one who wins while avoiding battle”
Take the least expected action
“the least-expected action disorients the enemy”
Importance of a mission, everyone understanding the “why”
“In a blitzkrieg situation, the commander is able to maintain a high operational tempo and rapidly exploit opportunity because he makes sure his subordinates know his intent, his Schwerpunkt. They are not micromanaged, that is, they are not told to seize and hold a certain hill; instead they are given ‘mission orders’…they understand their commander’s overall intent…they know their job is to do whatever is necessary to fulfill that intent."
Note: the leaders job is to make the mission clear to everyone, help them understand the “why”
Importance of trust
“Trust is the unifying concept. This gives the subordinate great freedom of action”
Note: reminds me of what my father once told me: “It takes a long time to build trust but only once to break it”
Get inside your enemies mind, humans fight wars
“To attack the mind of the opponent, to unravel the commander before a battle even begins, is the essence of fighting smart”
“Humans fight wars. You must get into the minds of humans. That’s where the battles are won”
“Machines don’t fight wars, people do, and they use their minds…People, ideas, hardware—in that order”
“Napoleon was so successful at knowing what opposing generals were thinking that he wrote Josephine that there were times when he felt he was leading both armies"
Be apart of the system or shake it up
“Do you want to be part of the system or do you want to shake up the system?”
Use your enemies information against them
“Boyd’s belief in using the adversary’s information against him”
Can build a positive reputation by not saying much
“cultivated a reputation for brilliance simply by not saying much”
Not hiding can be an advantage
“Boyd knew that when Pentagon bureaucrats seek vengeance the best strategy is not—as many believe—to keep a low profile but rather to become so prominent that any retribution will be seen for what it is”
Advantage of reading = considering all ideas
“educational institutions are places where students consider all ideas. One of the best ways to do that is to have students read"
Inductive reasoning, and more than one solution
“You must have inductive thinking…There is not just one solution to a problem…There are two or three or five ways to solve a problem. Never commit to a single solution”
No need for boasting
“Guerrillas win wars but they don’t march home to victory parades”
Teach to think, not follow rules
“Rigid rules simply won’t work. Teach men to think”
If they don’t like it, you’re on to something
“Getting kicked in the teeth is the reward for good work”
Truth is surrounded by lies
“the truth was too precious a commodity to travel alone—that it had to be protected by a ‘bodyguard of lies’”
Integrity is crucial
“Because once you lose credibility and you are no longer a threat, no one will pay attention to what you say. They won’t respect you and they won’t pay attention to you”
Go higher
“he held the mental and moral high ground”
Battle it straight on
“If you go outside the system, he said, you will be viewed as just another whistle blower. And whistleblowers get no respect; they get other to help them do something that they can’t do themselves”
“Jim, part of working within the system means that everyone who has a right to know what’s going on has a copy of all the paperwork”
Write to who your true audience is
“He told Burton to keep in mind that when he wrote a memo, it was not for the person to whom it was addressed, but rather to the generals”
Have hard to reach goals
“Boyd often had counseled Spinney to have goals but to make sure the goals could not easily be reached”
Takes a disaster to change bureaucracies
“You can’t change big bureaucracies until they have a disaster”
Remembered through your writing
“It is through a body of writing that a man such as Boyd is remembered. It is when academics pore over a man’s words and then write learned papers that his ideas find permanency”
“Academics dismiss Boyd because he left no text for them to analyze"
Held his work higher than his family
“as is often the case with men of great accomplishment—gave his work far greater priority than he did his family”
Make people believe they can do more
“Boyd made men believe they could do things they never thought they could do”
by Robert Coram
From Boyd's essay Destruction and Creation
Mental patterns to understand our environment
“To comprehend and cope with our environment we develop mental patterns or concepts of meaning”
Importance of having goals larger than oneself
“If we believe that it is not possible to satisfy it alone, without help from others, history shows us that we will agree to constraints upon our independent action—in order to collectively pool skills and talents in the form of nations, corporations, labor unions, mafias, etc—so that obstacles standing in the way of the basic goal can either be removed or overcome."
"On the other hand, if the group cannot or does not attempt to overcome obstacles deemed important to many of its individual members, the group must risk losing these alienated members.”
Note: this is why people leave companies/organizations, etc.
“In a real world of limited resources and skills, individuals and groups form, dissolve and reform their cooperative or competitive postures in a continuous struggle to remove or overcome physical and social environmental obstacles”
Note: A good strategy for young company recruitment based on the above then is to appeal to individuals’ sense of action
The need to destroy old ideas
“Without this unstructuring the creation of a new structure cannot proceed—since the bits and pieces are still tied together as meaning within unchallenged domains or concepts”
“unstructuring and restructuring just shown reveals a way of changing our perception of reality”
Taking a step back
“Godel’s Proof indirectly shows that in order to determine the consistency of any new system we must construct or uncover another system beyond it”
Entropy must increase in a closed system
“Accordingly, whenever we attempt to do work or take action inside such a system—a concept and its match-up with reality—we should anticipate an increase in entropy hence an increase in confusion and disorder”
Note: maybe this is what happens to organizations over time?
Must break down systems to avoid disorder and rebuild into something new
“Taken together, these three notions support the idea that any inward-oriented and continued effort to improve the match-up of concept with observed reality will only increase the degree of mismatch.”
“we find that the uncertainty and disorder generated by an inward-oriented system talking to itself can be offset by going outside and creating a new system"