Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life.
Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, cites principles as his key to success.
In 1975, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Over forty years later, Bridgewater has grown into the largest hedge fund in the world and the fifth most important private company in the United States (according to Fortune magazine), and Dalio himself has been named to TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way Dalio discovered unique principles that have led to his and Bridgewater’s unique success. It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio, that he believes are the reason behind whatever success he has had. He is now at a stage in his life that he wants to pass these principles along to others for them to judge for themselves and to do whatever they want with them.
Work Principle
Enforce the logic of conversations.
People's emotions tend to heat up when there is disagreement. Remain calm and analytical at all times; it is more difficult to shut down a logical exchange than an emotional one. Remember too that emotions can shade how people see reality. For example, people will sometimes say, "I feel like (something is true)" and proceed as though it's a fact, when other people may interpret the same situation differently. Ask them, "Is it true?" to ground the conversation in reality.
RECENT USER EXCHANGES
How do we deal with people whose artistic side of the brain overwhelms their logical faculty—I have plenty of friends who do things out of logic?
You either a) take them as they are and organize the protocols in such a way as they can be effective and happy while interacting with others in a way that doesn’t hurt the culture (e.g. exclude those who are incapable of interacting reasonably from the discussions that require it) or b) get rid of them. There are always balances and trade offs to be made so you have to decide whether the person who brings a talent and also is unreasonable (which threatens the idea-meriticractic culture) should be kept. For gods sake don’t let such people threaten the culture - isolate them or get rid of them if you can’t change them.
If you’re trying to enforce the logic of a conversation, how do you stay calm and analytical all the time?
We have to learn how to go above ourselves and our circumstances to look down at them with calm clarity, open-mindedly taking in the best input from the smartest people we have access to, in order to know that the best decisions to make are. Then we have to have the courage to make them. The first step to being able to do that is to realize how invaluable doing that is so that you want to go down that path. Then follow the suggestions in Principles. Before long (in about 6 months) you will want to do this.
Work Principle
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
