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score the effectiveness of a design, or compare designs, with a simple equation: What is even stranger is that, to some extent, OODA is a trip around the design spiral, but by focusing on get- ting around the spiral faster, one can make faster progress; and this was expressed by another great engineer, Admiral

Wayne Meyer, the father of the Aegis combat system. His mantra was: “Build a little, Test a little, Learn a lot.”

In a design context, he is simply stating: For greater ef- fectiveness do a lot of fast OODAs and forget about doing one big OODA, because by the time you are done with the big loop the march of technology has gunned you down.

What is even more interesting is that by using Boyd/

Meyer it becomes easier to manage the unknowns we do not know we do not know. (Big steps result in skipping lots of cracks in the pavement.) By rapidly taking small steps there will be fewer unknowns we did not know we did not know that become apparent, and that allows us to manage the process, by, for example ... increasing beam a little.

As I said, I do not remember from whom I learned about beam is cheap. I do remember where I learned about “build a little, test a little, learn a lot.” My father was working on a multi-billion dollar international navy bribery investigation and was working with a retired admiral. My father kept say- ing I should meet him since he was a wonderful engineer. In my mind admiral and engineer are an oxymoron; and when

I met him in the of? ce, I shook hands and exchanged pleas- antries, but must admit I did not make a signi? cant effort to become more acquainted with him.

A few months later my father told me the admiral had invited him as his guest to a destroyer christening. I said: “Nice, what is the vessel’s name?” My father said: “Wayne

Meyer.” I said: “Yes, I know that Wayne Meyer invited you, but what is the ship’s name.” My father simply repeated his answer with more emphasis (and proper parental contempt) and that resulted in me rushing to my computer to google

Wayne Meyer and discover his mantra.

Unfortunately, I never got to meet him again. But design truths never die.

For each column I write, MREN has agreed to make a small donation to an organization of my choice. For this column I select the American Society of Naval Engineers scholarship fund. We need more great admiral engineers. www.navalengineers.org

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