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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
First part of the book, about 20% of the total, was autobiographical. It’s main problem was that it was boring. Secondarily it has a humble brag vibe, but I was more willing to overlook that because it might essentially be impossible to be a hugely successful person writing a book distilling his wisdom on how to be more successful without it having some of that quality.
The principles themselves are good in the way that good self-help books are good: it contains mostly stuff that one already knows at some level, but it develops the ideas beyond what one has probably gotten to on one’s own, plus has the virtue of putting some good ideas that are easy to lose sight of in the hurly burly of everyday life back on top of the brain stack.
On the other hand this feels like it could have been 20% the length it is, which is a pretty serious flaw. How many times and in how many ways can one write that people should be more transparent?
I was initially put off by the liberal use of truly giant fonts (the size that allows 20-50 words per page) but on the positive side it allowed one to skim more easily which was very handy given how repetitive the book was at times.
The principles themselves are good in the way that good self-help books are good: it contains mostly stuff that one already knows at some level, but it develops the ideas beyond what one has probably gotten to on one’s own, plus has the virtue of putting some good ideas that are easy to lose sight of in the hurly burly of everyday life back on top of the brain stack.
On the other hand this feels like it could have been 20% the length it is, which is a pretty serious flaw. How many times and in how many ways can one write that people should be more transparent?
I was initially put off by the liberal use of truly giant fonts (the size that allows 20-50 words per page) but on the positive side it allowed one to skim more easily which was very handy given how repetitive the book was at times.
This is really three books in one. There is a memoir, life principles, and then work principles. I found the work principles to be very worthwhile and the highlight of the book. His life principles I found interesting, but pretty far off from my own. His memoir to open was just okay.
All that said, it is a lot of material to get through if you're only interested in one aspect of the book.
There are DOZENS AND DOZENS of principles in the book. Some very practical and some more abstract. I enjoyed some of the unique elements he brought to Bridgewater, but I thought it took too much time to get to the gold of the book.
All that said, it is a lot of material to get through if you're only interested in one aspect of the book.
There are DOZENS AND DOZENS of principles in the book. Some very practical and some more abstract. I enjoyed some of the unique elements he brought to Bridgewater, but I thought it took too much time to get to the gold of the book.
Imagine for a moment you were able to sit down for long conversation with a wise old man, who happened to have unimaginable success. That is this book. Ray Dalio is one who likes to think, and here he outlines his principles.
The book truly is three books. The first is a concise biography. The second are his personal (individual) principles for life. And the third are the principles he incorporates in his company, his corporate principles.
It is a book of intense practical advice. Most of what he says feels like sounds "common sense," which means it feels true, yet is hardly common. I will say, undoubtedly, he has cornered the market on identifying truth. And let me explain what I mean by that. Bridgewater, Ray Dalio's company, which he built from nothing out his 2 bedroom apartment, is one of the largest most successful hedge funds in the world. They deal with making money, which is a straightforward black or white enterprise. You know very quickly whether you've made a good decision or a bad one - there don't seem to be gray areas. And this is where Dalio's approach seems most effective, namely what he calls an "idea meritocracy - radical truth, radical transparency:" a phrase he repeats a lot.
This comes from an interview and feels very similar to the book:
Other ideas that are noteworthy (and have likely influenced the world) are:
-- computer aided decision making. Dalio started using computers way back to aid in objective decision making, utilizing algorithm optimization years before most people had computers in their homes.
-- diversified asset portfolios. No doubt others did this too, but it seems like Dalio and Bridgewater have come close to perfecting it.
-- a systematic approach to group interactions, including making baseball cards for employees.
-- rewarding failure. This encourages employees to not only come forward when mistakes are made (rather than hide them), and take risks, which leads to growth.
If interested, you might find his TED talk, which is a great intro. Or you can also download the e-book for free on your phone. The app is called oddly enough Principles. My only complaints with the book are many of the ideas are redundant because you get similar or the same thing in all three books. Second, it can be pretty dry. That being said, the advice is pretty solid.
If you have interest in making money, if you have interest in finding truth, if you lead a company or group of people, I'd recommend this book. Good solid advice worth hearing!
The book truly is three books. The first is a concise biography. The second are his personal (individual) principles for life. And the third are the principles he incorporates in his company, his corporate principles.
It is a book of intense practical advice. Most of what he says feels like sounds "common sense," which means it feels true, yet is hardly common. I will say, undoubtedly, he has cornered the market on identifying truth. And let me explain what I mean by that. Bridgewater, Ray Dalio's company, which he built from nothing out his 2 bedroom apartment, is one of the largest most successful hedge funds in the world. They deal with making money, which is a straightforward black or white enterprise. You know very quickly whether you've made a good decision or a bad one - there don't seem to be gray areas. And this is where Dalio's approach seems most effective, namely what he calls an "idea meritocracy - radical truth, radical transparency:" a phrase he repeats a lot.
This comes from an interview and feels very similar to the book:
The key to our success has been to have a real idea meritocracy. To have a successful idea meritocracy, you have to do three things: 1. Put your honest thoughts out on the table, 2. Have thoughtful disagreements in which people are willing to shift their opinions as they learn, and 3. Have agreed-upon ways of deciding if disagreements remain so that you can move beyond them without resentments. And to do this well, you need to be radically truthful and radically transparent, by which I mean you need to allow people to see and say almost anything. If you're not transparent, people won't know enough about what's going on to have good, independent opinions, and if you don't expect the truth of people, you'll never know whether or not they're telling you want they really think.
Other ideas that are noteworthy (and have likely influenced the world) are:
-- computer aided decision making. Dalio started using computers way back to aid in objective decision making, utilizing algorithm optimization years before most people had computers in their homes.
-- diversified asset portfolios. No doubt others did this too, but it seems like Dalio and Bridgewater have come close to perfecting it.
-- a systematic approach to group interactions, including making baseball cards for employees.
-- rewarding failure. This encourages employees to not only come forward when mistakes are made (rather than hide them), and take risks, which leads to growth.
If interested, you might find his TED talk, which is a great intro. Or you can also download the e-book for free on your phone. The app is called oddly enough Principles. My only complaints with the book are many of the ideas are redundant because you get similar or the same thing in all three books. Second, it can be pretty dry. That being said, the advice is pretty solid.
If you have interest in making money, if you have interest in finding truth, if you lead a company or group of people, I'd recommend this book. Good solid advice worth hearing!
Very motivational and wise. Definitely recommend.
fast-paced
One thing about humans is that we absolutely love shortcuts and the promise of a surefire process or method for success. We want to exercise our influence and creativity while also being provided all the answers. There are plenty of people out there who are confident and exude a sense of knowing more than the rest of us but when it comes down to it – nobody really has all the answers. And, that’s precisely what I got from Ray Dalio’s book.
This is a rambling, sprawling, and repetitive book – much like the author’s speaking style, I imagine (and confirmed by some of his own anecdotes in the book). If you are already a fan of Ray Dalio – you may enjoy this book. I suspect it would more enjoyable as an audio book – but reading it was really a struggle due to the writing style. Some of it is downright boring, impersonal and even a bit snarky and insulting. This book needed much stronger editorial feedback to polish it into a very useful book.
Dalio is arguing for a methodical, systematic and scientific approach to life that has, as its goal, continual improvement and advancement. Throughout the book he refers to “the machine” and advises that you “Think of yourself as a machine operating within a machine and know that you have the ability to alter your machines to produce better outcomes. […] By comparing your outcomes with your goals, you can determine how to modify your machine.” (p 157)
He’s not sharing much new information and the things that seem like they would be the most interesting and helpful in such a book are only described in vague, ambiguous terms. He wants to help people learn how to make better decisions – and that starts with better knowing yourself (values and goals). People are not able to see their own blind spots – so we need a support network of people who are both trustworthy and believable to provide us with this feedback so that we can make corrections.
“The biggest mistake most people make is to not see themselves and others objectively, which leads them to bump into their own and others’ weaknesses again and again.” (p 159).
Dalio – along with every other thought leader on leadership, management and self-improvement – wants you to get to know yourself better -- your own values, strengths and weaknesses -- as the first step to creating a plan and building a team to help you reach your goals. And, you need to differentiate between needs and desires – and learn to differentiate between your desires and positive/negative outcomes: “ I realized that most everything that at first seemed “bad” to me—like rainy days, weaknesses, and even death—was because I held preconceived notions of what I personally wanted.” (p 150).
Some of his advice seems rather mundane, such as the following discourse on personal weaknesses:
“When encountering your weaknesses you have four choices: 1. You can deny them (which is what most people do). 2. You can accept them and work at them in order to try to convert them into strengths (which might or might not work depending on your ability to change). 3. You can accept your weaknesses and find ways around them. 4. Or, you can change what you are going after.” (p. 160)
Throughout the book, Dalio refers to his 5-step system along with a blend of New Age advice mixed in about meditation, accepting reality and seeing things as they are, questioning your own thoughts.
5-Step Process
1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of your achieving those goals.
3. Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
4. Design plans that will get you around them.
5. Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.
The 5-step process is reflected throughout in other sub-routines. Here’s the process for managing people and teams: “1. Remember the goal. 2. Give the goal to people who can achieve it (which is best) or tell them what to do to achieve it (which is micromanaging and therefore less good). 3. Hold them accountable. 4. If they still can’t do the job after you’ve trained them and given them time to learn, get rid of them.” (p 400)
Dalio is a big fan of using personality assessments to learn more about oneself and others, and as the basis for making informed decisions about roles, hiring, assigning tasks and building team. He believes that “Your part in an employee’s personal evolution begins with a frank assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, followed by a plan for how their weaknesses can be mitigated either through training or by switching to a different job that taps into their strengths and preferences.” (p 421). And he recommends the “Use evaluation tools such as performance surveys, metrics, and formal reviews to document all aspects of a person’s performance. It’s hard to have an objective, open-minded, emotion-free conversation about performance if there is no data to discuss. It’s also hard to track progress.” (p 429).
I get the feeling that Ray Dalio isn’t exactly the most empathetic, warm and cuddly type. So, I can only imagine that delivering feedback to people about their weaknesses probably wasn’t handled very well in some cases. He admits to the reader, “This culture of bringing problems and disagreements to the surface generated a lot of discomfort and conflict, especially when it came to exploring people’s weaknesses. Before long, things came to a boil. Bob, Giselle, and Dan proposed taking me out to dinner with the stated purpose of “giving Ray feedback about how he affects people and company morale.” (p 62).
As with any blind spot – he was completely surprised, and reports “I never imagined that I was having that sort of effect. I didn’t want them to feel ‘incompetent, unnecessary, humiliated, overwhelmed, belittled, oppressed, or otherwise bad.’” (p. 63).
However, he’s not one to worry that much about whether people like him or not – he wants to focus on a factual, truthful accounting of strengths and weaknesses so that we can get on with achieving goals (goshdarnit!). As a result of this early 1990s intervention, Dalio responded in two ways – by starting to write down his principles and by creating a more systematic approach to employee strengths/weaknesses through “Baseball Cards.”
Interestingly – he says that he saw two “mutually exclusive options: 1) being radically truthful with each other including probing to bring our problems and weaknesses to the surface so we could deal with them forthrightly and 2) having happy and satisfied employees.” (p 63) This makes me wonder:
Why would radical truthfulness have to be hurtful?
Then again – his philosophy of engagement boils down to using people like tools or cogs in his machine, and he advises “Don’t worry about whether or not your people like you and don’t look to them to tell you what you should do.” (p 465). This is contrary to many other current leadership thought leaders such as Daniel Goleman’s Primal Leadership and Kouzes/Posner -- leaders should be concerned if they are liked and respected. Part of the leader’s job is to create engagement and connecting at a primal, emotional level with their team to help them move toward these goals.
Dalio has a very fatherly discussion about open vs closed-mindedness (and recommends staying far away from the latter). He reminds us that in thoughtful disagreement, “Remember that you’re looking for the best answer, not simply the best answer that you can come up with yourself.” (p 189).
There’s also a lot of discussion of psychology and neuroscience – especially around the conscious vs the unconscious minds which Dalio refers to as “the two yous.” He favors a methodical approach, and recommends writing as a way to slow down your thinking in developing your own principles and making decisions: “1. Slow down your thinking so you can note the criteria you are using to make your decision. 2. Write the criteria down as a principle. 3. Think about those criteria when you have an outcome to assess, and refine them before the next “one of those” comes along.” (p 255)
For me, the biggest shortcomings in the book are the boring and impersonal biography section – which Dalio even recommends skipping. It’s full of information that looks like it was copied from short calendar notes of accumulated calendars – with repeated mentions of watching extremely wealthy men being humbled and losing everything due to bad market decisions. There’s a ton of name dropping and some relatively condescending items – like the conversation with the Dalai Lama about neuroscience.
The Dalai Lama invites Dalio to a meeting with a professor of neuroscience but Dalio was too busy – but not so busy that he didn’t have time to give the Dalai Lama homework: “A few years ago, I had a conversation with the Dalai Lama … told me that the next day he was meeting with the University of Wisconsin professor of neuroscience who had helped him learn about this, and he asked me if I wanted to join him. Regrettably, I couldn’t but I recommended to him a book…” (p 217). Weird. Condescending. And why is this in the book except as an ego stroke on his part?
Another shortcoming is – well – where is the love, the joy and the fun? Is it all in the process of self-improvement? Is there no fun to be had in mistakes and falling short of a goal? Of slowing down and just appreciating, supporting and enjoying those around you?
- “This constant drive toward learning and improvement makes getting better innately enjoyable and getting better fast exhilarating.” (p. 151)
- “Meaningful relationships we get from social cooperation make us happier, healthier, and more productive; social cooperation is also integral to effective work.” (p 215)
- “Meaningful work and meaningful relationships aren’t just nice things we chose for ourselves—they are genetically programmed into us.” (p 215)
Sure, slow down your thoughts so you can make better decisions and reduce the risks associated with reacting to emotional responses generated by your amygdala but where’s the fun?
There’s a LOT of repetition in this book. Honestly, if I were the editor -- I’d chop out most of the biography, all the irrelevant name dropping, reduce the redundancy and turn this into a much more practical hands on guide focusing on things like the issue/error log and the baseball cards. For a man who talks about how everything is a case study – we’re lacking in case studies and practical templates with data to back up the success rates of these methodologies.
If you aren't already a Ray Dalio fan and this isn't your first leadership/personal development book -- take the shortcut and find the shorter version of Ray Dalio's principles - previously distributed for free and you can still find it linked in places on the internet. It's much more focused and less rambling and gives some excellent points to consider in creating and recording your own principles for life and work.
A few more quotes from the book that fall into the “fatherly advice” realm:
- Don’t get hung up on your views of how things “should” be because you will miss out on learning how they really are. (p 140)
- Knowing how to deal well with your setbacks is as important as knowing how to move forward. (p 173)
- Never say anything about someone that you wouldn’t say to them directly and don’t try people without accusing them to their faces. (p 327)
- Don’t hire people just to fit the first job they will do; hire people you want to share your life with. (p 415)
- Everything is a case study. Think about what type of case it is and what principles apply to that type of case. (p 453)
This is a rambling, sprawling, and repetitive book – much like the author’s speaking style, I imagine (and confirmed by some of his own anecdotes in the book). If you are already a fan of Ray Dalio – you may enjoy this book. I suspect it would more enjoyable as an audio book – but reading it was really a struggle due to the writing style. Some of it is downright boring, impersonal and even a bit snarky and insulting. This book needed much stronger editorial feedback to polish it into a very useful book.
Dalio is arguing for a methodical, systematic and scientific approach to life that has, as its goal, continual improvement and advancement. Throughout the book he refers to “the machine” and advises that you “Think of yourself as a machine operating within a machine and know that you have the ability to alter your machines to produce better outcomes. […] By comparing your outcomes with your goals, you can determine how to modify your machine.” (p 157)
He’s not sharing much new information and the things that seem like they would be the most interesting and helpful in such a book are only described in vague, ambiguous terms. He wants to help people learn how to make better decisions – and that starts with better knowing yourself (values and goals). People are not able to see their own blind spots – so we need a support network of people who are both trustworthy and believable to provide us with this feedback so that we can make corrections.
“The biggest mistake most people make is to not see themselves and others objectively, which leads them to bump into their own and others’ weaknesses again and again.” (p 159).
Dalio – along with every other thought leader on leadership, management and self-improvement – wants you to get to know yourself better -- your own values, strengths and weaknesses -- as the first step to creating a plan and building a team to help you reach your goals. And, you need to differentiate between needs and desires – and learn to differentiate between your desires and positive/negative outcomes: “ I realized that most everything that at first seemed “bad” to me—like rainy days, weaknesses, and even death—was because I held preconceived notions of what I personally wanted.” (p 150).
Some of his advice seems rather mundane, such as the following discourse on personal weaknesses:
“When encountering your weaknesses you have four choices: 1. You can deny them (which is what most people do). 2. You can accept them and work at them in order to try to convert them into strengths (which might or might not work depending on your ability to change). 3. You can accept your weaknesses and find ways around them. 4. Or, you can change what you are going after.” (p. 160)
Throughout the book, Dalio refers to his 5-step system along with a blend of New Age advice mixed in about meditation, accepting reality and seeing things as they are, questioning your own thoughts.
5-Step Process
1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of your achieving those goals.
3. Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
4. Design plans that will get you around them.
5. Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.
The 5-step process is reflected throughout in other sub-routines. Here’s the process for managing people and teams: “1. Remember the goal. 2. Give the goal to people who can achieve it (which is best) or tell them what to do to achieve it (which is micromanaging and therefore less good). 3. Hold them accountable. 4. If they still can’t do the job after you’ve trained them and given them time to learn, get rid of them.” (p 400)
Dalio is a big fan of using personality assessments to learn more about oneself and others, and as the basis for making informed decisions about roles, hiring, assigning tasks and building team. He believes that “Your part in an employee’s personal evolution begins with a frank assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, followed by a plan for how their weaknesses can be mitigated either through training or by switching to a different job that taps into their strengths and preferences.” (p 421). And he recommends the “Use evaluation tools such as performance surveys, metrics, and formal reviews to document all aspects of a person’s performance. It’s hard to have an objective, open-minded, emotion-free conversation about performance if there is no data to discuss. It’s also hard to track progress.” (p 429).
I get the feeling that Ray Dalio isn’t exactly the most empathetic, warm and cuddly type. So, I can only imagine that delivering feedback to people about their weaknesses probably wasn’t handled very well in some cases. He admits to the reader, “This culture of bringing problems and disagreements to the surface generated a lot of discomfort and conflict, especially when it came to exploring people’s weaknesses. Before long, things came to a boil. Bob, Giselle, and Dan proposed taking me out to dinner with the stated purpose of “giving Ray feedback about how he affects people and company morale.” (p 62).
As with any blind spot – he was completely surprised, and reports “I never imagined that I was having that sort of effect. I didn’t want them to feel ‘incompetent, unnecessary, humiliated, overwhelmed, belittled, oppressed, or otherwise bad.’” (p. 63).
However, he’s not one to worry that much about whether people like him or not – he wants to focus on a factual, truthful accounting of strengths and weaknesses so that we can get on with achieving goals (goshdarnit!). As a result of this early 1990s intervention, Dalio responded in two ways – by starting to write down his principles and by creating a more systematic approach to employee strengths/weaknesses through “Baseball Cards.”
Interestingly – he says that he saw two “mutually exclusive options: 1) being radically truthful with each other including probing to bring our problems and weaknesses to the surface so we could deal with them forthrightly and 2) having happy and satisfied employees.” (p 63) This makes me wonder:
Why would radical truthfulness have to be hurtful?
Then again – his philosophy of engagement boils down to using people like tools or cogs in his machine, and he advises “Don’t worry about whether or not your people like you and don’t look to them to tell you what you should do.” (p 465). This is contrary to many other current leadership thought leaders such as Daniel Goleman’s Primal Leadership and Kouzes/Posner -- leaders should be concerned if they are liked and respected. Part of the leader’s job is to create engagement and connecting at a primal, emotional level with their team to help them move toward these goals.
Dalio has a very fatherly discussion about open vs closed-mindedness (and recommends staying far away from the latter). He reminds us that in thoughtful disagreement, “Remember that you’re looking for the best answer, not simply the best answer that you can come up with yourself.” (p 189).
There’s also a lot of discussion of psychology and neuroscience – especially around the conscious vs the unconscious minds which Dalio refers to as “the two yous.” He favors a methodical approach, and recommends writing as a way to slow down your thinking in developing your own principles and making decisions: “1. Slow down your thinking so you can note the criteria you are using to make your decision. 2. Write the criteria down as a principle. 3. Think about those criteria when you have an outcome to assess, and refine them before the next “one of those” comes along.” (p 255)
For me, the biggest shortcomings in the book are the boring and impersonal biography section – which Dalio even recommends skipping. It’s full of information that looks like it was copied from short calendar notes of accumulated calendars – with repeated mentions of watching extremely wealthy men being humbled and losing everything due to bad market decisions. There’s a ton of name dropping and some relatively condescending items – like the conversation with the Dalai Lama about neuroscience.
The Dalai Lama invites Dalio to a meeting with a professor of neuroscience but Dalio was too busy – but not so busy that he didn’t have time to give the Dalai Lama homework: “A few years ago, I had a conversation with the Dalai Lama … told me that the next day he was meeting with the University of Wisconsin professor of neuroscience who had helped him learn about this, and he asked me if I wanted to join him. Regrettably, I couldn’t but I recommended to him a book…” (p 217). Weird. Condescending. And why is this in the book except as an ego stroke on his part?
Another shortcoming is – well – where is the love, the joy and the fun? Is it all in the process of self-improvement? Is there no fun to be had in mistakes and falling short of a goal? Of slowing down and just appreciating, supporting and enjoying those around you?
- “This constant drive toward learning and improvement makes getting better innately enjoyable and getting better fast exhilarating.” (p. 151)
- “Meaningful relationships we get from social cooperation make us happier, healthier, and more productive; social cooperation is also integral to effective work.” (p 215)
- “Meaningful work and meaningful relationships aren’t just nice things we chose for ourselves—they are genetically programmed into us.” (p 215)
Sure, slow down your thoughts so you can make better decisions and reduce the risks associated with reacting to emotional responses generated by your amygdala but where’s the fun?
There’s a LOT of repetition in this book. Honestly, if I were the editor -- I’d chop out most of the biography, all the irrelevant name dropping, reduce the redundancy and turn this into a much more practical hands on guide focusing on things like the issue/error log and the baseball cards. For a man who talks about how everything is a case study – we’re lacking in case studies and practical templates with data to back up the success rates of these methodologies.
If you aren't already a Ray Dalio fan and this isn't your first leadership/personal development book -- take the shortcut and find the shorter version of Ray Dalio's principles - previously distributed for free and you can still find it linked in places on the internet. It's much more focused and less rambling and gives some excellent points to consider in creating and recording your own principles for life and work.
A few more quotes from the book that fall into the “fatherly advice” realm:
- Don’t get hung up on your views of how things “should” be because you will miss out on learning how they really are. (p 140)
- Knowing how to deal well with your setbacks is as important as knowing how to move forward. (p 173)
- Never say anything about someone that you wouldn’t say to them directly and don’t try people without accusing them to their faces. (p 327)
- Don’t hire people just to fit the first job they will do; hire people you want to share your life with. (p 415)
- Everything is a case study. Think about what type of case it is and what principles apply to that type of case. (p 453)
I almost gave up on this book which would have been a big mistake. Roughly 30% is hit-or-mis but the bulk of it is pure GOLD.
Take advantage of the FREE companion app to the book called “Principles in Action”. It comes with a free digital copy of the authors books as well as interactive features to help you apply each principle in your life.
Take advantage of the FREE companion app to the book called “Principles in Action”. It comes with a free digital copy of the authors books as well as interactive features to help you apply each principle in your life.
