This guy is really good. Thanks for sharing.

The reason the military guys got this so fast was that they already knew what he was talking about.

the idea he is really talking about is John Boyd's OODA cycle[1]. It's a conceptual idea for decision making - a fast iterative feedback and decision cycle.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

EDIT: Oh. I just got to the part where he simply says "This is based on the OODA loop by a fighter pilot named John Boyd..."

This is an /excellent/ book on the subject. http://www.amazon.com/Science-Strategy-War-Strategic-History...

Great audio lecture from Boyd himself. This one 10 minute video gets right down to the core of the idea in one go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuY5NcRvBbU&feature=respo...

I can't recommend Discourse on winning and losing, Creation and Destruction and Conceptual spiral more.