expressionsphrasestechnical
In "Getting Things Done", David Allen refers to "Open Loops", meaning things that are incomplete.
Q: What past reference to an "Open loop" is he alluding to? Is that phrase "Open Loop" something that's been used in other areas before and is being redefined by David Allen, or is this a brand new phrase?
Stocks were a form of public humiliation used as a form of punishment a few hundred years ago.
As Shakespeare notes, sometimes there's method in madness.
Yes, “random order” is an oxymoron in that the two words are an apparent contradiction in terms: order suggests organization while random suggests a lack thereof. However, like many oxymora, the contradiction is incidental and resolvable by careful consideration. “Controlled chaos” is a similar oxymoron where lack of a method is part of the method.
To resolve the contradiction, first consider that order doesn't always mean deliberate order. The natural order is a well-known example, used in contrast to the laws of God and men, where philosophers base morality on the natural world as observed instead of a divine or mortal plan. Spontaneous order is a similar example, where order emerges “out of seeming chaos.” This lies at the root of Tim Lymington's comment that sequence needn't imply deliberation.
Furthermore, the Oxford definition of random overlooks many subtleties of the word, as it's a dictionary and not a comprehensive treatment of the subject. While a random order does imply a lack of conscious choice in selecting each element of the sequence, it does not speak to the choice of employing randomness in the overall method. The process is deliberate (and thus ordered) even if the outcome is not (and thus random).
I don't believe that this is a deliberate oxymoron – emphasis mine:
In general, oxymora can be divided into expressions that were deliberately crafted to be contradictory and those phrases that inadvertently or incidentally contain a contradiction, often as a result of a punning use of one or both words.
Order includes both deliberate and observed sequences. Randomness can indicate a lack of a plan or simply an unpredictable outcome. “Random order” actually means “an observed sequence with unpredictable outcome.” The contradiction only arises incidentally, if you select the wrong meaning of both words to form “a deliberate lack of a plan,” making this an inadvertent oxymoron.
Best Answer
Informal definitions here: In any system, results (output) which influence further actions (input) constitute a "Closed Loop". If the results of actions do not directly influence further input, you have an "Open Loop".
Strictly speaking, an open loop is no loop at all. In a closed loop system, the output "loops back" and in some way effects the input.
Common examples: Cruise control on a vehicle is a closed loop - changes to load, etc, are 'fed back' into the control system to effect how much the vehicle must accelerate or decelerate to maintain a relatively constant speed.
If you pay no attention to what effect your marketing has on your sales, and make no changes to it based on that, you have an "Open Loop".
These phrases have been around at least since the dawn of computer science. I don't know "Getting things done", but in most cases a closed loop would certainly be part of effective management.