John Boyd
The 40-Second Hero who revolutionized Air Warfare
Intro
John Boyd, to this day, is celebrated for his dominating fighter pilot techniques in the U.S Air Force in the 1950’s. Able to put his own strategy into practice, Boyd is often referred to as the greatest fighter pilot in American history. Although his own aerial prowess must be recognized, Boyd’s fame mostly stems from his innovative ideas that changed the course of air warfare. He was one of America’s most important and notable military strategists, an experienced fighter pilot responsible for the design of multiple fighter jets, a consultant to the Pentagon, and an intelligent theorist of aerial warfare. His ingenious ideas for aerial combat revolutionized the art of American war, allowing him to take place as one of America’s greatest heroes.
Despite being a renowned strategist of the twentieth century, John Boyd is a bit of a mysterious name, akin to another great military strategist, Chinese general Sun Tzu, because Boyd rarely published any of his theories and strategies. Instead, his legacies are felt in the strategies that live on today rather than in the words he put down to paper.2 Amid his various achievements, one of Boyd’s greatest strengths were his insightful briefings that he gave to his fellow fighter pilots at the Nellis Air Force Base. His self-confidence combined with his scientific approach to military strategy resounded in his briefings, which had a great impact on his peers.3
Like Sun Tzu, John Boyd approached warfare as something that could be codified, studied, and understood. Although he intuitively understood air combat, he believed that it could be scientifically understood, and his teachings often took the format of guides and manuals, many of which are still in use by the U.S. Air Force today. His eloquent teaching abilities, based on logical and rational scientific thinking, made John Boyd one of the Air Force’s greatest weapons.
You gotta challenge all assumptions. If you don’t, what is a doctrine on day one becomes dogma forever after.
– John Boyd[1]
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
