Principles by Ray Dalio is broken into 3 parts:
- Part 1: Where I'm Coming From - A memoir where Dalio shares his life experiences and how he built Bridgewater Associates.
- Part 2: Life Principles - Outlines the principles guiding his personal life, covering decision-making, relationships, and personal development.
- Part 3: Work Principles - Explains the principles governing Bridgewater Associates, focusing on organizational management, decision-making processes, and fostering a culture of transparency.
Let’s focus on the life principles…
#1 - Embrace reality and deal with it
- Don't confuse what you wish were true with what is really true.
- Don't worry about looking good-worry instead about achieving your goals.
- Don’t overweight first-order consequences relative to second- and third-order ones. Don’t let pain stand in the way of progress.
- Don’t blame bad outcomes on anyone but yourself.
#2 - Get what you want out of life
- Have clear goals.
- Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of you achieving those goals.
- Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
- Design plans that will get you around them.
- Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.
#3 - Be radically open-minded
- Recognize your two barriers; your ego and blind spots.
- Practice radical open-mindedness.
- Appreciate the art of thoughtful disagreement.
- Triangulate your view with believable people who are willing to disagree.
- Recognize the signs of close-mindedness and open-mindness that you should watch out for.
- Understand how you can become radically open-minded.
#4 - Understand that people are wired very differently
- Turn to neuroscience to understand the programming of brains.
- Learn the pre-programming of your brain and understand the inner battles you are predisposed to.
- Leverage your learnings of your inner world and the outer world to navigate and reconcile life.
#5 - Learn how to make decisions effectively
- Recognize that 1) the biggest threat to harmful decision making is harmful emotions, and 2) decision making is a two step process (first learning then deciding).
- Synthesize the situation at hand both now and over time.