Ask HN: How do you apply Boyd's OODA Loop in your life?
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;OODA_loop" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;OODA_loop</a><p>For others: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act<p>It&#x27;s a feedback loop, and everyone uses feedback loops. What most people don&#x27;t do is analyze their feedback loops and work to improve them.<p>To take advantage of the concept of OODA you need to shorten the loop. That doesn&#x27;t, strictly, mean acting faster (though it can). What you really want is to make smaller decisions, but make them more frequently. This is the same principle as Lean production and software development.<p>When you decide on an action it should be something that can be immediately carried out. You don&#x27;t decide on an action like: I&#x27;ll take the ball down the field, pass the 2 defenders, and kick it into the top left corner of the goal.<p>You decide to take the ball down the field. As you approach the defenders, you decide how you will pass them or who you will pass the ball to. If you pass them you decide how you will get past the goalkeeper, will you feint and misdirect? Will you use your strong and precise kick to get it in the corner he&#x27;s not? You can&#x27;t know that until you get there so the decision isn&#x27;t made until you arrive there.<p>==============================<p>A distinction has to be made, and many do not, between the goal and the action. You can decide on a goal, but it is not an action itself. Instead you have to start making a series of decisions that lead to that goal. As you make each of those decisions you&#x27;ll have more information, you&#x27;ll see shortcuts or delays that have to be worked around. You decide on a next action, and you execute. And you repeat. This is the OODA loop.<p>==============================<p>I do use this, in sports (soccer and BJJ for me), in driving (particularly the aspect of deliberate action, once I&#x27;ve decided I do not slowly drift into a new lane, I make the action deliberate and clear so no one else is confused). I try to use it at work but I&#x27;m surrounded by Waterfall Worshippers so that&#x27;s a frustration. I do use it with my own work assignments and projects, but I cannot get my organization to make use of it themselves.<p>==============================<p>Edit: To add, like <i>brd</i>, I don&#x27;t actually think in terms of OODA, but it is something I learned a long time ago. My dad was a pilot, and he drilled the concepts (though not the term) into my sister and I just in daily life. I use the concepts of it, but actively only think of it when trying to convey it to others or to integrate it into something beyond my own efforts.