Quotes About Agility

Generating a rapidly changing environment—that is, engaging in activity that is so quick it is disorienting and appears uncertain or ambiguous to the enemy—inhibits the adversary's ability to adapt and causes confusion and disorder that, in turn, causes an adversary to overreact or underreact. Boyd closed the briefing by saying the message is that whoever can handle the quickest rate of change is the one who survives.

Sun Tzu, said the best commander is the one who wins while avoiding battle. The intent is to shatter cohesion, produce paralysis, and bring about collapse of the adversary by generating confusion, disorder, panic, and chaos. Boyd said war is organic and compared his technique to clipping the nerves, muscles, and tendons of an enemy, thus reducing him to jelly.

Learn to move fast and adapt or you will be eaten. The best way to avoid this fate is to assume formlessness. No predator alive can attack what it cannot see. OBSERVANCE

Be like vapor. Do not give your opponents anything solid to attack; watch as they exhaust themselves pursuing you, trying to cope with your elusiveness. Only formlessness allows you to truly surprise your enemies — by the time they figure out where you are and what you are up to, it is too late.

Great strategists do not act according to preconceived ideas; they respond to the moment, like children. Their minds are always moving, and they are always excited and curious. They quickly forget the past—the present is much too interesting.

That is the power of formlessness — it gives the aggressor nothing to react against, nothing to hit.

Horses have powerful legs- but that doesn't mean they're prima ballerinas. Elianna to Mariketa.

humans are similar to other domesticated animals. We have bred docile cows that produce enormous amounts of milk but are otherwise far inferior to their wild ancestors. They are less agile, less curious, and less resourceful.

We have bred docile cows that produce enormous amounts of milk, but are otherwise far inferior to their wild ancestors. They are less agile, less curious and less resourceful. We are now creating tame humans that produce enormous amounts of data and function as very efficient chips in a huge data-processing mechanism, but these data-cows hardly maximise the human potential. Indeed we have no idea what the full human potential is, because we know so little about the human mind. (page 50)

They moved with a minimum of effort and noise, and knew how to sit, walk and run in the most agile and efficient manner. Varied and constant use of their bodies made them as fit as marathon runners. They had physical dexterity that people today are unable to achieve even after years of practising yoga or t'ai chi.

Sometimes is pays to be fast and sneaky instead of just a pile of muscles," she said laughing. "And you make such a satisfying thump when you go down.

Because I'm an English ninja," Tanith replied. "We're just like regular ninjas, except we wear leather and flirt more.

Agile methods derive much of their agility by relying on the tacit knowledge embodied in the team, rather than writing the knowleadge down in plans.

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.

In many professions, what used to matter most were abilities associated with the left side of the brain: linear, sequential, spreadsheet kind of faculties. Those still matter, but they're not enough.

Adopt and change before any major trends or changes.

Entrepreneurial leadership requires the ability to move quickly when opportunity presents itself.

At Honda, it's sink or swim. They don't teach you step-by-step; they just throw you into the pool and let you figure it out on your own. If you don't know how to swim at first, you need to be aggressive to survive. We are to try out whatever we think is necessary to take ourselves to the next level.

We used to build businesses with all effort and hard work. Today, we create businesses by paying attention to what the market wants and co-creating with those we serve.

In a simpler world, perhaps unilateral power held by a single, smart, capable leader could rule the day. In a complex world, as we'll explore together, it takes a collective sharing of power, creativity, and perspectives to become agile and nuanced enough to lead into the uncertain future.

No matter how sharp its edges, no knife could hold a candle to fang and claw.

Don't be a slave to history. Don't let existing code dictate future code. All code can be replaced if it is no longer appropriate. Even within one program, don't let what you've already done constrain what you do next -- be ready to refactor... This decision may impact the project schedule. The assumption is that the impact will be less than the cost of /not/ making the change.

Great software today is often preferable to perfect software tomorrow.

Small players learn to be intuitive, to anticipate, to protect the ball. A guy who weighs 90 kilos doesn't move like one who weighs 60. In the playground I always played against much bigger kids and I always wanted the ball. Without it, I feel lost.