Driver’s Education and the OODA Loop

Today was a day of helping the eldest youngling with some driving practice. He’s waited to get his license as he’s not worried about too much riding his “longest of skate board.” We were out for about an hour.

I’ll back up just a bit as I have done this before with another pair of great younglings (turned great parents) but I don’t remember much of what I told them. Mainly, I use what is happening to lead the suggestions and comments.

Now, many years later, I’m doing this again. The difference is that I’ve got much more experience and better words to help. This isn’t the point of this post, though. The hour of being a passenger for a “permit” driver practicing a new skill set turned on many lights bulbs.

Watching him get stuck in the “Observe & Orient” portion of the OODA loop over and over again was…scary.

It hadn’t struck me until now how much work it was for him to get past the “Observe and Orient” portion of the theory. Watching him mentally go through a list of questions so he knew how what to do.

When should I start slowing down to stop?
When should I turn on the blinker?
Did I stop first or do I let the car on the right go?
Did I stop long enough?
How fast should I accelerate from the stop sign?

This is something that I had taken for granted, now that I’m old and have decades of work on that skill set. Back when I started driving…1978…there weren’t many talking about the OODA Loop. It would have been cool to have had that theory to help develop the decision making process.

I wrote a post sometime ago titled “OODA Loop for daily life” but this makes it more evident. I’ll be trying to be more observant as to where this theory arises. How about you? Do you have decision making hesitations? Maybe studying the OODA Loop further will help!