No Way Out The A-Frame: A Navy SEAL's Extension of Boyd's OODA Loop with Adam "Guz" Karaoguz
Adam "Guz" Karaoguz, retired Navy SEAL and author who created the A-Frame decision model. He discusses the A-Frame's Attend–Appreciate–Act structure with attunement as its aim. Conversations cover his ibogaine experience and integration, links between storytelling and Boyd's OODA loop, his Naval Postgraduate research on commander decision-making, and how attention, values, and psychedelics reshape adaptability.
01:23:10
Ibogaine Cohort At Ambio Changed Adam's Meditation
- Adam recounts his ibogaine treatment cohort at Ambio in Tijuana and his cautious choice to speak sparingly about it.
- He credits the treatment for finally helping meditation stick and for developing a lasting mindfulness practice.
Prepare Intention And Integration For Psychedelics
- Treat psychedelic medicine as sacred and situate it within intention, preparation, and integration work.
- Adam prepared intentions, reflected on what to leave behind, and emphasized post‑treatment integration like mindfulness practice.
Story Is A Psychotechnology For Orientation
- Storytelling functions as a psychotechnology that transmits survival lessons and shapes orientation.
- Adam maps the five‑beat StoryGrid/Freytag cycle into orientation and shows narrative teaches adaptive behaviors (campfire example).
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Intro
00:00 • 20sec
Guz's SEAL background and flow after service
00:20 • 2min
Transition struggles and seeking peak performance
02:00 • 1min
Ibogaine treatment in Tijuana and its context
03:00 • 2min
Meditation, integration, and lasting changes
05:16 • 1min
Psychedelics, consciousness, and performance
06:20 • 3min
Preparation: books and frameworks for medicine
08:56 • 2min
Storytelling, Boyd, and strategy parallels
11:00 • 3min
Ad break
13:40 • 1min
The A-Frame emergence and attunement focus
14:44 • 3min
Origins: Naval Postgraduate research and decision-making
17:24 • 58sec
Story beats inside OODA and human adaptability
18:21 • 3min
Writing craft, Story Grid, and novel development
21:13 • 5min
Attunement: literature, McGilchrist, and moral attention
26:00 • 3min
A-frame as ontology beyond UDA
28:58 • 4min
Verveke's value, Boyd's moral level, and attractors
32:46 • 5min
Attention vs attunement in training and debrief
37:41 • 4min
Perception-action coupling and ecological dynamics
42:10 • 4min
Vigilance, trauma, and cognitive exhaustion
45:57 • 5min
Nested cycles: flow, recovery, and the Freitag pyramid
51:08 • 5min
Taoism, Alan Watts, and Boyd's Eastern influences
56:00 • 5min
Psychedelics, attractors, and changing fitness landscapes
01:01:20 • 4min
Values, knowing types, and educating generalists
01:05:10 • 6min
Practical takeaways and personal priorities
01:10:41 • 4min
Light conversation: movies, culture, and camaraderie
01:14:50 • 7min
Outro
01:21:54 • 2min
#81506
The Infernal Tower
The Infernal Tower
Adam "Guz" Karaoguz
The Infernal Tower is Adam Karaoguz's action-thriller novel blending high-stakes plotting with thematic explorations of trust, redemption, and the meta-crises of modern life.
Drawing on Karaoguz's military experience and storytelling training (Story Grid), the book balances visceral action sequences with deeper philosophical and cultural questions.
It underwent multiple rewrites across years as the author developed craft, integrating narrative beats and thematic layers to engage readers on several levels.
Adam described using Story Grid techniques to tighten the manuscript and to weave in ideas about orientation, flow, and human values.
The novel serves as an example in the episode of how narrative functions as a psychotechnology to transmit adaptive lessons.
#42952
Recognition-Primed Decision
Gary A. Klein
Gary Klein's scholarship on naturalistic decision making describes how experienced practitioners make rapid, effective choices without comparing many options, relying instead on pattern recognition and mental simulation.
His ShadowBox method translates this insight into a training tool that makes expert cognition explicit for learners.
Adam referenced Klein's work as foundational to teaching attention and salience in high-stakes environments like special operations.
Klein's research has influenced fields from firefighting to military training, emphasizing context-rich learning over abstract rule-following.
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Lee W. McKnight
Raul Luciano Katz
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Science, Strategy, and War
Franz Ocinga
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The Story Grid
Shawn Coyne
Steven Pressfield
Shawn Coyne's "The Story Grid" provides a comprehensive framework for plotting and structuring novels.
It emphasizes the importance of genre conventions and offers a detailed scene-by-scene analysis method.
The book's focus on clear structure and reader engagement makes it a valuable resource for writers of all levels.
Coyne's approach is both analytical and creative, appealing to writers who appreciate a structured approach to storytelling.
It's a popular choice for writers seeking to improve their plotting and overall narrative structure.
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The Tao of Complexity
Jean Boulton
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Alan Watts
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Andrew R. Gallimore
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Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
In this classic dystopian novel, Ray Bradbury depicts a future American society where books are outlawed and 'firemen' are tasked with burning any discovered.
The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman who starts to question his role after encountering Clarisse, a young girl who loves nature and reading.
As Montag delves deeper into the world of books, he begins to see the emptiness of his life and the dangers of a society that values entertainment over critical thinking and intellectual freedom.
With the help of Faber, a retired English professor, Montag rebels against the system, leading to a confrontation with his fire chief, Captain Beatty, and ultimately joining a group of intellectuals who have memorized books to preserve knowledge for a post-apocalyptic future.
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The New Rules of War
Sean McFate
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Waking Up
A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
Sam Harris
In this book, Sam Harris argues that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow.
He explores the scientific underpinnings of spirituality, suggesting that how we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the quality of our lives.
The book is part memoir and part exploration, discussing the illusion of the self, the benefits of meditation, and the importance of understanding consciousness through both scientific and philosophical lenses.
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Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand
Published in 1957, 'Atlas Shrugged' is Ayn Rand's magnum opus and her longest novel.
The story is set in a dystopian United States where increasingly burdensome laws and regulations strangle innovation and productivity.
The plot follows Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive, and Hank Rearden, a steel magnate, as they struggle against 'looters' who exploit their work.
A mysterious figure named John Galt leads a strike of productive individuals, persuading them to abandon their companies and disappear.
The novel culminates with Galt's three-hour radio speech explaining his philosophy of Objectivism, which emphasizes rational self-interest, individual rights, and the importance of the human mind.
The book explores themes of capitalism, property rights, and the failures of governmental coercion, presenting a provocative vision of a society in collapse and the potential for a new capitalist society based on Galt's principles.
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Starship Troopers
Robert A. Heinlein
In 'Starship Troopers,' Robert A. Heinlein explores a future society where citizenship and the right to vote are earned through military service.
The story follows Juan 'Johnny' Rico as he joins the Terran Mobile Infantry and undergoes rigorous training and battles against an alien species known as the 'Bugs.
' The novel delves into themes of citizenship, duty, and the philosophy of war, while also critiquing societal values and the implications of militarism.
Through Rico's journey, Heinlein examines the psychological and moral aspects of war, the importance of discipline and sacrifice, and the complex relationships between comrades in a military context.
#4338
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The Phenomenon of Man
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
In *The Phenomenon of Man*, Teilhard de Chardin presents a vision of evolution as a process that leads to greater complexity and unity, ultimately reaching a collective consciousness he terms the 'Omega Point'.
The book integrates scientific and theological perspectives, proposing a morally idealistic view of human nature and its role in the universe.
Initially met with skepticism, it has since been recognized for its innovative synthesis of diverse fields.
Retired Navy SEAL Adam "Guz" Karaoguz has spent the last ten years building an extension of Boyd's OODA loop he calls the A-Frame. Attention, appreciation, action, with attunement as the goal.
Adam joins Mark McGrath and Brian "Ponch" Rivera to walk through the framework, the work behind it, and the personal experience that shaped both. Naval Postgraduate School thesis on ground force commander decision making. Years of synthesis through Iain McGilchrist on the divided brain, John Vervaeke on parasitic processing and relevance realization, and Gary Klein on recognition-primed decision making. The conversation moves into Adam's ibogaine treatment in Tijuana at Ambio, the integration work after the experience, and the moment he realized he was going for himself, not just for Slider.
Adam also discusses his novel The Infernal Tower, the Story Grid framework he learned through Steven Pressfield's mastermind, and why storytelling and the OODA loop are the same pattern operating at different scales.
Find Adam at the Renaissance Human Substack and on LinkedIn.
John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words:
“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”
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