Winning The Wars

The same strategy works in every war.

That could be a literal armed conflict or a metaphorical war, like triumphing over a business rival, courting your romantic interest or overcoming your personal weaknesses.

The strategy isn't new. It was there in Sun-Tzu's The Art of War; military strategist John Boyd wrote about it in 1980; W. Edwards Deming brought it to manufacturing in 1982. Name your field, you can find a book that talks about it.

The core principle of the strategy is simple; anyone can implement it. It's so effective that it has repeatedly helped the smaller, lesser equipped combatants prevail against much larger foes.

It is as close to a secret formula for anything you want to achieve in life as you will find.

And yet, when I tell it to you...you're likely to be disappointed.

Ready?

Here's the strategy:

Act decisively,

Analyze the outcomes, and

Adjust accordingly.

Put another way:

The side that learns the fastest wins.

Boyd called it the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act).

Deming called it the Plan-Do-Act cycle.

Swift action, followed by deliberate learning, followed by iteration - that's it.

"But I already know that," you may be saying. "Everyone knows that."

Do they?

Despite its simplicity and effectiveness, few people actually put the strategy into practice.

Why? A few reasons:

They get bogged down in planning, trying to predict the future and prepare for every outcome.

They fail to track their outcomes accurately or track the wrong data.

They misinterpret results, filtering everything through their own cognitive biases or personal proclivities.

They refuse to adapt to reality even when the data is staring them in the face, insisting that they'll "get it right next time."

Whatever the reason, actual implementation of this strategy is exceedingly rare. That's truly unfortunate, because the strategy doesn't just make you smarter - it terrifies your enemies.

This was Boyd's insight: if you complete these act-learn-iterate loops faster than your opponents can, you accrue a competitive advantage that seems almost supernatural. Your enemies are perpetually one step behind. Confusion spreads through the opponent's ranks, resulting in panic, hasty reactions and eventual collapse. They shell your position two days after you'd already left. You come upon them, ready for battle, only to find they're still unloading their equipment.

Chaos, confusion, and despair to your opponents. Victory for you.

Time and again, year after year, back to the earliest tales of war.

Success, in any realm, goes to those who learn the fastest.

Simple, but not easy.

The only question is:

Will you do the work?

Yours,

d

Something I'm reading:

Read together for a (perhaps depressing) snapshot of art in our current age:

Drowning in Slop. The internet is being filled with garbage.

The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age. Meanwhile, (human) artists struggle with the need to measure, manage, and market their work.