Principles

In 1975, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later, Bridgewater is the fifth most important private company in the United States (Fortune) and has made more money for investors than any other hedge fund in history (Bloomberg). Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that he believes are the reason behind his success, and that he now shares in this book.

While Principles brims with novel ideas, its core is a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making — including Dalio's innovative process of "believability weighting" — that anyone can apply no matter what they're seeking to achieve. The book also provides a blueprint for creating "an idea meritocracy that strives for meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical truth and radical transparency," which is the reason for Bridgewater's success. Here, from a man called "the Steve Jobs of Investing" by CIO magazine, is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you'll find in the conventional business press.

• Part I: Where I'm Coming From
1. My Call to Adventure: 1949-1967
2. Crossing the Threshold: 1967-1979
3. My Abyss: 1979-1982
4. My Road of Trials: 1983-1994
5. The Ultimate Boon: 1995-2010
6. Returning the Boon: 2011-2015
7. My Last Year and My Greatest Challenge: 2016-2017
8. Looking Back from a Higher Level
• Part II: Life Principles
1. Embrace Reality and Deal with It
2. Use the 5-Step Process to Get What You Want Out of Life
3. Be Radically Open-Minded
4. Understand That People Are Wired Very Differently
5. Learn How to Make Decision Effectively
• Life Principles: Putting It All Together
• Summary and Table of Life Principles
• Part III: Work Principles
• Summary and Table of Work Principles…
• To Get The Culture Right…
1. Trust in Radical Truth and Radical Transparency
2. Cultivate Meaningful Work and Meaningful Relationships
3. Create a Culture In Which It Is Okay to Make Mistakes and Unacceptable Not to Learn from Them
4. Get and Stay In Sync
5. Believability Weight Your Decision Making
6. Recognize How to get Beyond Disagreements
• To Get the People Right…
7. Remember That the WHO Is More Important than the WHAT
8. Hire Right, Because the Penalties for Hiring Wrong Are Huge
9. Constantly Train, Test, Evaluate, and Sort People
• To Build and Evolve Your Machine…
10. Manage as Someone Operating a Machine to Achieve a Goal
11. Perceive and Don't Tolerate Problems
12. Diagnose Problems to Get at Their Root Causes
13. Design Improvements to Your Machine to Get Around Your Problems
14. Do What You Set Out to Do
15. Use Tools and Protocols to Shape How Work Is Done
16. And for Heaven's Sake, Don't Overlook Governance!
• Work Principles: Putting It All Together
• Appendix: Tools and Protocols for Bridgewater's Idea Meritocracy

A book that was interesting to read, not least because the author knows how to write, but also because there are nuggets here and there.

It is not a book to read straight through, but to come back to and reflect over. Sometimes a bit wordy, and you don't always have to agree with the concepts, but you at least understand where the ideas come from and why they make sense to the author.

All in all, a decent book that makes you think.