Orientation Over Optics: Boyd’s Framework for Real-World Resistance
OODA Strategist Mark McGrath takes apart yet another faulty application of Boyd's work, and we see how it applies directly to your group.
John Boyd’s OODA loop has long been applied outside the world of air combat, and it should be; Boyd intended that. Unfortunately, a lot of people view it as purely a short-term tactical tool, or miss how critical Orientation is.
A recent article penned by
titled, “The OODA Loop Trap: How Misunderstanding Boyd Becomes Your Greatest Advantage,” dismantles some of these misreadings, showing how pundits and operators oversimplify Boyd’s framework, reduce it to catchy slogans, and sideline the critical role of Orientation.But for those outside the Pentagon or corporate boardrooms—specifically, readers here who are looking to be more effective in resistance and activism—why does this matter?
Whether you’re building a group, protecting your existing group from infiltration, or just trying to stay free while the system decays, Boyd’s model is indispensable. Even more importantly, it needs to be applied correctly. It’s not just a tool; it’s the operating system for navigating chaos and outmaneuvering opponents. McGrath explains:
Orientation is not a speed dial. It is an organic, living root system through which perception, belief, and understanding shape how we sense, decide, act, and learn to adapt. Boyd describes Orientation as the cognitive operating system that encompasses our genetic heritage, cultural traditions, previous experiences, new information, and analysis and synthesis. It is what allows one to reframe reality faster than the adversary.
When you realize how all-encompassing Orientation is, it changes how you view it… and what you can use it for.
Let’s take that further, and set the stage for understanding Boyd’s relevance to resistance:
Orientation is feedback-driven and dynamic. It’s the lens shaping your perception, judgment, and action, constantly reshaped by new information and experience. It’s not a static filter, but a living process of analysis and synthesis.
Trust is structural. Implicit guidance and cohesion can’t be faked or rushed. Trust must be deliberately built through shared culture and conduct.
The loop scales. Boyd extended OODA beyond dogfights to cultural collapse and strategic disintegration. It’s the framework for how you process every situation, from personal decisions to systemic challenges.
Tempo is an outcome and reward, not a tactic. Speed emerges from rapid, effective reorientation, not from simply trying to be faster. Mismatch generation (creating and exploiting gaps between your actions and your opponent’s expectations) is the real goal.
Here’s why these principles are mission-critical for resisters.
Applying Boyd to Resistance Orientation: Your Feedback-Driven Perimeter
Orientation isn’t just what you see; it’s the dynamic, feedback-driven process that shapes how you interpret and act on reality.
As Boyd outlined in Destruction and Creation, orientation involves breaking down outdated mental models (destruction) and reassembling them into new, adaptive frameworks (creation) under pressure. This cycle of analysis and synthesis is your cognitive perimeter defense. It filters friend from foe, vets information, and sets trust boundaries in a resistance group’s security culture.
A misaligned orientation—when your mental model drifts from reality—breeds entropy. It’s like a software glitch in your operating system: small errors compound, decisions falter, and your group risks collapse. Resisters who fixate on “moving fast” without reorienting invite infiltration, disruption, or emotional hijacking.
We see this in activism’s repetitive failures: groups recycle predictable tactics, trapped in the opponent’s paradigm, because they fail to break down and rebuild their approach. We just talked last week about the myth of effective gun rallies. Groups keep doing them, but if they were reorienting properly they’d be changing their tactics because reality demands it. When you aren’t reorienting, however, you don’t know that.
Orientation, then, is how you decide whose rules you’re playing by. It’s a feedback loop, constantly updated by new data, experiences, and deliberate practice. Get it right, and you generate those gaps between your actions and your opponent’s expectations that give you the upper hand.
Trust and Cohesion: Implicit Guidance
McGrath emphasizes that OODA relies on implicit guidance and control. In resistance, where explicit orders are risky or impractical, this is non-negotiable. Underground operations thrive on shared mental models, purpose, and signals:
Shared mental models—everyone understands the goals and how to think through them.
Shared purpose—agreement on why the fight matters.
Shared signals—clear, intuitive cues for action and adaptation.
This implicit trust enables fluid improvisation and sustained tempo without constant coordination.
Imagine two families. In Family A, kids follow rigid rules and seem to do well, but then when they leave home they flounder in the chaos because they can’t reorient. In Family B, parents teach critical thinking and principles, fostering kids who can analyze, synthesize, and act under pressure regardless of the situation they find themselves in.
Family A’s trust is built on “I know you will follow the rules I set.” Family B’s trust is built on “You know how to think, analyze, and reorient regardless of the situation.”
Resistance groups need Family B’s approach: a culture of trust rooted in shared orientation, not rote obedience. Without it, surveillance, provocateurs, or betrayal will fracture the loop, grinding your efforts to a halt.
Scalability: From Cockpit to Collapse
Boyd designed OODA to scale, applying it to everything from air combat to the disintegration of empires. McGrath reminds us that Boyd’s Destruction and Creation maps how systems collapse when their orientations misalign with reality.
For resisters, this scalability is your blueprint. Treating OODA as a mere tactical tool limits you to short-term moves. You’ll burn out chasing speed, miss deeper cultural or narrative shifts, and fail to adapt as a movement.
Instead, OODA lets you pressure centralized systems at their weak points. By generating mismatches and exploiting gaps between what the system expects and what you do, you accelerate its entropy.
Mismatch is the Real Goal
Boyd’s genius lies in mismatch generation, not raw speed. As McGrath notes, tempo is an outcome of effective orientation, not a tactic to chase. Rapid reorientation—breaking down old assumptions and synthesizing new ones—lets you act in ways your opponent can’t predict or counter. Speed follows naturally when your orientation is sharp and your trust is solid, but it’s frosting on the cake.
Consider a resistance group dodging state surveillance. If you prioritize speed over orientation, you might rush into action, only to be tracked or exposed. But if you focus on reorienting through analyzing new threats, synthesizing countermeasures, and aligning your group’s mental models, you create mismatches. This adaptability, rooted in Orientation, is what keeps you ahead.
Analysis and Synthesis Under Pressure
Boyd’s Destruction and Creation is the engine of OODA. Resistance itself is a constant cycle of breaking down what’s obsolete, salvaging what works, and reassembling it under hostile conditions. Fail to do this, and you’ll cling to outdated tactics, misaligned with reality, until your enemy exploits your entropy.
Resisters must metabolize chaos, not be consumed by it. That means:
Destroying flawed assumptions or strategies.
Keeping useful fragments, such as principles, networks, insights.
Synthesizing them into adaptive tools under pressure.
This process is disciplined, iterative, and rooted in feedback. Groups that can’t reorient, such as those recycling failed protest tactics, will be outmaneuvered by systems that adapt faster.
McGrath’s warning about shallow OODA interpretations is a wake-up call for resisters. Boyd’s loop isn’t about acting faster or predicting your enemy’s next move. It’s about generating mismatches through rapid, feedback-driven reorientation.
Misalign your orientation with reality, and entropy will unravel your efforts. Master the cycle of destruction and creation, build implicit trust, and scale your approach, and you’ll adapt faster than your opponent can recover.
Tempo will follow, but adaptation is the victory.