Boyd
by Robert Coram · first published 2002
86% recommend14% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Biography of fighter pilot John Boyd, covering the origins of the OODA loop, his fights with Pentagon bureaucracy and aircraft procurement, and his uncompromising principles. Suits readers of strategy or competition.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics c
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…the father of the A-10, F15 (sort of), F-16 and FA-18. Fascinating read about how the armed forces will completely ignore data on flight characteristics due to politics. (it's about the life of John Boyd, not just how aircraft a chosen but its covered quite a bit in the book) [1] https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/031...
on “What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane (2015)” ↗Col. Boyd must be spinning in his grave! One of my favorite books: https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/031... There's a lot about what's wrong with aircraft procurement in this book and how…
on “The F-35 may be unsalvageable” ↗See "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" for a more complete description of his life. The article doesn't do it justice. http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316...
on “What the F-86 can teach us about software development” ↗Anyone interested would enjoy reading about John Boyd, head of the Fighter Mafia: https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/031...
on “Why did the F-14 Tomcat retire decades before its peers? (2021)” ↗Really glad to see this here on HN. I read Boyd by Robert Coram a month ago and I still can't stop seeing the parallels in any competitive endevavor. Definitely a great book for hackers. The book covers the history behind Boyd's OODA loop and a lot…
on “Speed-Freak Football” ↗The creative destruction alluded to in this post is well covered by John Boyd's life work, although Boyd presented things through a military perspective. For a teaser, know that Boyd's philosophies underpinned the U.S. plan of attack in Operation Desert Storm. If you want a dense…
on “Hacking is Important” ↗"The most important thing in life is to be free to do things. There are only two ways to insure that freedom - you can be rich or you can you reduce your needs to zero." (John Boyd) edit: for more about this interesting man, read "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art Of War" by Robert Coram.
on “Independently Poor: A Twist on FU Money. Or: "FU, Money" (2012)” ↗The best overall study of Boyd and Boydism is Robert Coram's book Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art Of War: http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-The-Fighter-Pilot-Changed/dp/0316... The best general-audiences intro to Boyd-as-philosophy…
on “Humiliation in Startups” ↗For anyone interested in learning more, the book 'Boyd' provides a lot of useful background information on - why the F-35 is a total disaster - the Pentagon's intrinsic inability to make reasonable decisions In a nutshell, this guy Boyd pioneered modern…
on “The Little “Fighter” That Couldn’t: Moral Hazard and the F-35” ↗Robert Coram's biography of John Boyd is very good. http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-The-Fighter-Pilot-Changed/dp/0316...
on “Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight” ↗One of the cool things about the biography of John Boyd (http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316...) was the quoting from and parsing of his performance reviews in the US Air Force.
on “The German reference letter system” ↗…made me laugh so hard that I dropped the book. Non-fiction: this one's a tough one because many good books are mentioned already, but two that I really enjoyed and have recommended in the last year are: Boyd by Robert Coram and How the Other Half Banks by Mehrsa Baradaran. Boyd tells the story about a brilliant but petulant air force pilot who rewrote the guidelines of US military aviation. How the Other…
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗This is addressed quite well in Robert Coram’s Excellent _Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War_ with the life shaping question: “Do you want to be somebody, or do something?” You will be a really big deal at FANG but you are not likely to do as interesting…
on “Ask HN: Would you rather work for Google or a smaller high growth company?” ↗"Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/031...
on “Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner” ↗Take a look at how John Boyd upended the Air Force dev process, but of course that ended with his untimely death. Nobody else was able to do it. He ran the "Fighter Mafia" which was responsible for the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/031...
on “The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed” ↗