Ray Dalio, the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, wrote a book about his principles for success in work, life and worklife. He also shares those principles freely on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. I highly recommend reading his principles and trying to translate those principles into mental models deliberately in one’s work and life. He shares these principles because he credits them for his own personal, professional, business, relationship and financial success in his own life.
His principles are high level abstractions and design-level thinking which can sound vague at times however they are timeless and reusable principles which make them so valuable. Oftentimes, people get too bogged down into tactics and minute details, which is important on a micro level but they forget about the macro level and the higher-order and big picture in today’s fast paced, nonstop and chaotic world. Ray’s principles however are timeless nuggets of wisdom because they can be applied to a wide domain of areas ranging from business to personal and make one extremely clear on how to think and act in a wide variety of situations.
I don’t necessarily agree with all of his principles, but I find most of them highly useful and valuable in building better mental models and gaining more clarity in my own thinking and life philosophy. I think thinking from first principles like Ray Dalio, Bill Gates or Elon Musk is highly underrated and easily the most valuable life and business skill in the 21st century because of how fast things are changing in today’s world and how chaotic and messy it can be at times. Below are some of my favorite principles from Ray.