John Boyd
To be somebody, or to do something
The fork in the road
The 'fork in the road' talk, recorded in Coram's biography
He made colonel and never rose again. The speech he gave every young officer who wanted to follow him.
What actually happened?
Boyd made enemies across the Pentagon: the lightweight fighter he pushed cut into too many budgets. Whenever a young officer wanted to join him he gave the same talk. You will come to a fork. One road: go along, accommodate the system, get promoted, collect the medals, and be somebody. The other: do what should be done, and get things done. Take the second and you won't rise fast, but you won't have to betray yourself. He stopped at colonel. The F-16 and American manoeuvre-warfare doctrine are full of his work.
The two roads pay in different currencies
To be pays in position — title, grade, circle — issued by the system and revocable by it. To do pays in results: what you finished stays in the world and nobody can confiscate it. The fork is really asking which currency you intend to accumulate.
One decade: one person banked three promotions, the other three systems still running. Layoff day shows the difference in liquidity.
Accept the price of the second road up front
Boyd didn't dress it up: no promotion, being frozen out, the cold bench — he said all of it. The honesty is in putting the bill first. People who take 'to do' and then complain about missing 'to be' rewards want both and end up with neither.
Most of the pain comes from scoring yourself on the other road's scoreboard.
The system takes the work and withholds the credit
His designs were adopted, his theory written into doctrine, and the credit and the stars went elsewhere. That's the standard ending on this road: the results are absorbed, the person isn't crowned. Knowing that in advance moves your satisfaction to 'the thing is in use' — the only stable pay here.
Your proposal lands, packaged as your boss's win. The disgust is real. So is the proposal, running.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: a chance to move up conflicts with something that should get done.
Ask first: which currency am I accumulating? Having taken this road, am I willing to use this road's scoreboard?
Where it goes wrong: using 'to do' as consolation while nothing actually gets done; or despising 'to be' entirely, forgetting that some things can only be done from a position.
Lines to keep
One road: promotion and medals. The other: doing what should be done.
You won't rise fast, but you won't have to betray yourself.
People, ideas, hardware — in that order.