Principles

Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975. His book describes the 210 work Principles that helped build Bridgewater into the worlds largest hedge fund with more than $150 billion assets under management today (Fortune places them at #5 on its “Top 25 Most Important Private Companies”). According to Dalio, Bridgewater seeks to build an “idea meritocratic” company culture that values meaningful work and meaningful relationships, radical truth and radical transparency. The principles delineate these and other more pragmatic ideas in (at times exhaustive) detail.

Principles overlaps and builds on concepts that have resonated with me from other books I’ve read in recent years. Dalio’s “radical transparency” is similar Kim Scott’s Radical Candor. His discussion of managing conscious and subconscious decision-making echoes Kahneman’s seminal Thinking Fast and Think Slow and his building habits in similar ways to James Clear’s Atomic Habits. The books are not derivative by any means — my observation is that smart people look at this problems in similar ways. I hope to emulate this approaches in my work and personal endeavors.