Chet Richards

Here at ChetRichards.com we practice fundamentalist Kaizen, the uncompromised and ceaseless pursuit of perfection.

In that spirit, here is an updated version of the Origins of John Boyd’s A Discourse on Winning and Losing. It rounds out the big box at the bottom with something more substantive than “etc.” I have also increased the size of the type in the “Clausewitz and Jomini” bubble because Boyd did borrow a lot from Clausewitz (friction, centers of gravity, etc.) Boyd’s use of these ideas, though, often differed greatly from how they appear in On War.

What you’re seeing here is the parts list for Boyd’s snowmobile. It’s sort of interesting, but not that important in and of itself. What is important is that you learn to build your own snowmobiles that will serve you effectively in whatever situation you’re in. As John concluded the Discourse (emphasis in original):

A loser is someone (individual or group) who cannot build snowmobiles when facing uncertainty and unpredictable change;

whereas

A winner is someone (individual or group) who can build snowmobiles, and employ them in an appropriate fashion, when facing uncertainty and unpredictable change.