OODA Loop & Evolutionary Epistemology of John Boyd by Chuck Spinney
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN readers recommend it as the way to learn what Boyd actually meant by OODA, straight from a collaborator, rather than from the popularized loop diagram.
What it is
Chuck Spinney, a long-time associate of John Boyd, presents Boyd's thinking on the OODA loop and evolutionary epistemology. The talk runs about two and a half hours and includes Q&A.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends jmcalvay · 2021-03 · on “The OODA Loop: How Fighter Pilots Make Fast and Accurate Decisions”
I've been enjoying this video series with interviews of Boyd's surviving collaborators as a way to separate out what he meant from what folks often misunderstand: Chet Richards (as it relates to business) - [LINK] Chuck Spinney (as it relates to epistemology) - [this video] Both - [LINK] (they're from this meetup: [LINK] )
Recommends jasonra · 2021-03 · on “The OODA Loop: How Fighter Pilots Make Fast and Accurate Decisions”
See here the original presentation on OODA Loop that has been given at Quantico Marine base dozens of times by John Boyd's associate of 20 years Chuck Spinney. It shows the thinking method behind the OODA Loop--Evolutionary Epistemology: [this video]
Recommends jmcalvay · 2021-11 · on “Thinking in OODA Loops [slides]”
I also found this presentation/discussion with Chuck Spinney, one of Boyd's collaborators, to be a helpful elaboration of the concept - [this video] (the meetup also has a couple of other similar videos with Chuck Spinney and Chet Richards, another of Boyd's collaborators who focused on applying Boyd's ideas to business)
Recommends aspenmayer · 2025-06 · on “Successful people set constraints rather than chasing goals”
An interesting video from another time this came up on HN: [this video] > OODA Loop & Evolutionary Epistemology of John Boyd by Chuck Spinney From this comment: [LINK] They also mention a video by Chet Richards and how it relates OODA to business context. [LINK] The Q&A with both Chet Richards and Chuck Spinney is also worth a look: [LINK]