OODA Loops Revisited

A gifted engineer once explained to me the concept of OODA loops. As many of you may know, the OODA loop is a cycle of Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. Intended as a military strategy, the concept fundamentally altered the US military approach to air combat from the 1960s onward. We have used variations of the OODA Loop in many aspects of our lives and our work, often consciously but just as often intuitively. 

This engineer went on to stress the criticality of fast reaction times in everything from market dynamics to operating data centers/application platforms. The ability to act and react quickly -- sometimes even as a competitor is announcing intent -- is as important as the technical quality and timing of that reaction. And as an engineer he noted that "as important" aspect, not that it was "more important." 

Thus, something as simple as a runbook, whether for a dishwashing liquid cleanup in Aisle 5 or a complete security incident response, takes on a more illustrious role. It is no longer a mere checklist but a means to reduce reaction time and perhaps even glean competitive advantage. That speedy response can indeed be more effective than a later, more robust response. It's the reason why variations on "That's what s/he/I said!" can make one chuckle. It's not that the joke is all that good (anymore), but that it's fast. (The punchline is left as exercise to the reader.) 

Now, contrary to what a legion of tax reformers may insist, loopholes always exist. Broad tax rules may lack the specificity to indicate whether a particular deduction is legal. Overly specific rules may be easily avoided. Loopholes are the consequence of these opposing forces and of the inherent complexity of the rulesets. In a competitive situation, the ability to find these loopholes and take advantage of them while respecting the constraints of the rules confers an edge until that particular loophole is closed. Moral objections aside, there's also an argument that a corporation, as stewards of shareholders' assets, are obligated to exploit these loopholes.  

Perhaps it is a stretch, but I can see variations of the OODA loop in everything from the canonical examples of stock market timing (buy low before a stock catches on) to virtual memory allocation schemes (sometimes simple LRUD rules are faster than smarter ones), bin fitting algorithms (again, simple approaches such as "first fit" are more stably performant), to winning rock-paper-scissors-(lizard-spock). 

But then it is not always about competition.  

That gifted engineer was also a US Marine. In a quite frank discussion one day, he lamented that too many folks assumed that military approaches were the right thing to do in business. Whether it was from Sun Tzu's Art of War or Boyd's OODA Loop, we had started to approach everything as a battle. Indeed, the benefits of cooperative non-bidding was the lesson in one of the very first team-building exercises I'd participated in. I made a joke about anti-trust violations but that particular balloon did not float. It took years to appreciate what he meant by his few words on the subject.   

That engineer, Jim Wildman, passed away earlier today. A man of intellect, integrity, and few words, he went on to much greater roles. Yet, those truths that he related as an engineer over pizza in an empty office are the one that will always remain with me. Jim, you will be missed.