About this reading
John Boyd’s Patterns of Conflict explores how people adapt, cooperate and prevail in conflict. These six chapters bring his recorded presentation and slides together, including the digressions, qualifications and audience exchanges.
About the text
This is an edited reading, not a verbatim transcript. Brackets and notes mark unclear words, possible readings and editorial additions. Some uncertainty may remain unmarked; consult the recording before quoting a difficult passage.
Slides and recordings
The slide panels adapt Boyd’s slides for reading rather than reproduce them as facsimiles. Maps are schematic, not calibrated geographic measurements. Source links beside each panel let you compare versions:
- December 1986 slides — the earlier deck.
- May 2026 Richards/Spinney edition — a later edition with differences in wording and illustrations.
Boyd continued revising the presentation after December 1986. Chet Richards’s “Changes to Patterns of Conflict” (31 July 2026) introduces a 17-minute video on two major later changes. The date on the earlier deck does not establish when this recording was made.
The bibliography follows the closing discussion. It lists references from the later slide deck, not citations for individual answers.
Recordings
Video links use Jason M. Brown’s fourteen-part upload, as Jasonmbro. The same recorded presentation is also available in Dan Grazier’s playlist, with different edits and updated slide inserts.
The exact recording date is unknown. In “Uploading John Boyd” (2015), Brown estimates the mid-to-late 1980s. He suggests that the audience is a group of congressional staffers in Iowa Representative Jim Lightfoot’s office. Both the date and the setting remain tentative.
Brown describes finding a large videotape labeled “Patterns” in the Boyd Collection at the Marine Corps Archives in Quantico, Virginia, and having the archives’ audiovisual department convert it to DVDs. He dates his copy to 2007; his YouTube upload of Part 1 appeared in January 2015. The presentation runs for more than six hours, including questions and answers.
This is not the separate 1989 recording transcribed by Ian T. Brown. His “John Boyd Primer” identifies that audio-only presentation as a briefing to Marine Command and Staff College students at Quantico.
Using the reader
Read at your own pace, or open a passage’s video link. Minimize the video to keep listening; close it to pause. “Follow sections” is optional, and scrolling away or opening notes pauses following without interrupting playback.
Video links are approximate. Where the timing is uncertain, you can still read the passage and watch the recording normally.
The reading works without JavaScript. Video playback requires JavaScript and an internet connection.