Mr Robb goes to Washington

Had a great time at the Capital Hill club with Jim Longley's group. Lots of very smart people that were willing to think outside the box.

The Boyd conference was tremendous. It's definitely growing up as a conference. Much more important than the content (which was excellent), was a chance to actually meet Shlok, Mark, Isaac, Dan, and Dave D. in person.

In terms of Boyd's ideas, I couldn't help but think that his models were too focused on individual (and cohesive group) decision making. Perhaps I need to focus on formalizing models for war fighting that can mobilize much more complex/diverse environments to achieve success. It would be a natural compliment.

Comments

[dan tdaxp]

"Perhaps I need to focus on formalizing models for war fighting that can mobilize much more complex/diverse environments to achieve success. It would be a natural compliment."

That would be fascinating. I look forward to it!

[zenpundit]

Hey John,

It was great to connect with you at Boyd! Hopefully, the start of an annual get-together for the online gang.

Regarding updating OODA, I was thinking that non-direct observation Orientation was tremendously influenced by consenus in Boyd's day due to the preeminence of hierarchical gatekeepers.

One update would be the growing diversity of channels of Orientation through institutions (hierarchies), markets, scale free networks and tribes instead of the former being overwhelmingly dominant.

I'm sure that this distinction could reasonably sandwiched back under a broad/global/scalable interpretation of the OODA Loop but it may not have been how Boyd originally conceived Orientation, given the cultural-societal environment in which he operated.

Perhaps Chet or Frans Osinga could chime in here?

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Zen,

"I'm sure that this distinction could reasonably sandwiched back under a broad/global/scalable interpretation of the OODA Loop but it may not have been how Boyd originally conceived Orientation, given the cultural-societal environment in which he operated."

I wonder if we are on the same wavelength. I've had a few OODA posts on D5GW, earlier ones, looking at it from a broader scale -- particularly what I've loosely called "The Social OODA." (First image and summary at

http://www.fifthgeneration.phaticcommunion.com/flickr-photo-album.php
.)

The diversification of channels may nonetheless lead to similar orientations developing (as well as mental constructs; or call them worldviews), albeit between people who have never met, and this may be related to a term John has used in the past, stigmergy, although it too should probably be thought of in a broader, scalable way.