Skilluminati Research

Get Familiar with John Boyd

Posted Apr 18, 2008 4 comments

To comprehend and cope with our environment we develop mental patterns or concepts of meaning. The purpose of this paper is to sketch out how we destroy and create these patterns to permit us to both shape and be shaped by a changing environment. In this sense, the discussion also literally shows why we cannot avoid this kind of activity if we intend to survive on our own terms.

--from Destruction and Creation

I've covered military strategist/taoist warrior John Boyd once before, and as the tone of Skilluminati Research turns toward real-world instruction and application, Boyd will become a central figure. He was a very precise thinker and a very concise writer -- in terms of being stripped-down, bullshit-free and clearly understandable, you'd be hard pressed to find a better author in military history.

Well...barring Sun Tzu. But for my money, John Boyd is light years beyond Machiavelli and still running circles around existing military doctrine.

Boyd recognized, decades go, that the chain of command would eventually be used as a weapon against the military itself. Specifically, it would be wrapped around the neck of the top brass by small bands of insurgents who travel lighter, react faster, and refuse to abide by conventional warfare.

RESPECT THE TROOPS.

Earlier this afternoon I was out on the porch with my laptop and wound up talking to a passing stranger. He was a Marine and he was broke -- trying to raise gas money to get back home to Carbondale, Illinois. He said he'd been walking around all day and getting harassed everywhere he went. Local police had a problem with him being black and broke, and local liberals apparently mistook him an official spokesman of the Bush administration. I gave him as much as I could but less than I should have.

I mention this because doing this research has given me a newfound respect for our troops. Not merely because of their bravery -- and if you don't think volunteering to be on the line of fire qualifies as "bravery," you're just being stubborn (and dumbfuck).

What really got me thinking was reading The Small-Unit Leader's Guide to Counterinsurgency, which outlines the training and the daily job description of ground-level commanders. The sheer amount of details they need to keep track of is nearly super-human. The learning curve is more of a vertical brick wall you must scale or die.

The Marine I talked to was broke because our soldiers aren't paid well and there's less support for them on the homefront than ever. I don't mean people cheering and throwing confetti at them on the streets -- just health care and economic security. He's headed back in a month for his 3rd tour of duty in Basra.

As I will be repeating constantly in the weeks to come, I think a lot about what the next decade will bring. What happens when our warriors realize their masters view them as interchangeable meat property? What happens when young recruits in terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or FARC come to realize the beliefs they got raised with were merely bullshit? As the division between Superwealthy and 6 billion peasants and slaves becomes increasingly obvious to even the most domesticated humans, what will become of their warrior class?

The John Boyd Conceptual Spiral

To keep track of the dizzying responsibilities involved with modern warfare, you need a clear, simple, and effective overall system to organize your information overload.

Here's the entire conceptual framework, laid out in John Boyd's own words:

"Patterns of Conflict" represents a compendium of ideas and actions for winning and losing in a highly competitive world;

"Organic Design for Command and Control" surfaces the implicit arrangements that permit cooperation in complex, competitive, fast moving situations;

"The Strategic Game of ? and ?" emphasizes the mental twists and turns we undertake to surface appropriate schemes or designs for realizing our aims or purposes;

"Destruction and Creation" lays out in abstract but graphic fashion the ways by which we evolve mental concepts to comprehend and cope with our environment;

"Revelation" makes visible the metaphorical message that flows from this "Discourse."

All of the documents I linked to are hosted by the folks at Defense and the National Interest. BIG THANK YOU to Chet Richards for making this available.

That's more than enough brainfood for now, huh? I apologize for the overdose. When I find the single most concise summation of his overall body of work, I will definitely let y'all know.

Filed in: 5GW Project 2008

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