Meet Ray. He has done a lot of cool things in life.
Principles, is a book by Ray.
What makes Ray unique is his drive to decipher a puzzle.
Everyone has their thing…Ray’s is an innate ability to look at something objectively, dissect the parts, and improve the whole.
Ray’s curiosity drives his ability to look at a person, the markets, a business process, and understand what it takes to improve them.
Raymond Dalio (born August 1, 1949) is an American billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. Dalio is the founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates.
Here are some of the quotes that hit me throughout Principles.
Think for yourself + Courage: pg xi
“If you can think for yourself while being open-minded in a clearheaded way to find out what is best for you to do, and if you can summon up the courage to do it, you will make the most of your life. If you can’t do that, you should reflect on why that is, because that’s most likely your greatest impediment to getting more of what you want out of life.”
Ray is a very systematic person, in fact, that seems to guide most of his thinking and life. This opening passage encompasses the main theme of Principles.
Learn from history: pg 15
“My failure to anticipate this [hardship], I realized, was due to my being surprised by something that hadn’t happened in my lifetime, though it had happened many times before. The message that reality was conveying to me was ‘You better make sense of what happened to other people in other times and other places because if you don’t you won’t know if these things can happen to you and, if they do, you won’t know how to deal with them.”
This quote helps synthesize why I’m drawn to perspectives from other people (current or past). There is an infinite amount of wisdom and knowledge to be gained through relating to those who’ve done it before. Sometimes I feel like the lamborghini knowledge guy.
Other people have gone through similar situations: pg 121
“I learned that even if they hadn’t happened to me, most of them had happened to other people in other times and places, which gave me a healthy respect for history, a hunger to have a universal understanding of how reality works, and the desire to build timeless and universal principles for dealing with it.”
Similar to the quote before. Any situation you’re going through, someone has already been through it. Seek out what happened and educate yourself.
Learn how reality works: pg 133
“Learning how reality works, visualizing the things I want to create, and then building them out is incredibly exciting to me.” “I find it exhilarating being caught up in the feedback loop of rapid learning—just as a surfer loves riding a wave, even though it sometimes leads to crashes.”
This to me is what separates Ray from most people. Deep down he is driven by understanding how reality works, then altering it to change an outcome. This principle will drive someone toward self improvement, market prediction, and business process refinement.
Beauty of a million moving parts: pg 147
“One of the great marvels of nature is how the whole system, which is full of individual organisms acting in their own self-interest and without understanding or guiding what’s going on, can create a beautifully operating and evolving whole.”
Side note: I’ve been getting more and more interested in the topic of systems. A million moving pieces interacting on each other to create an ecosystem of balance. Recommended Reading: Thinking in Systems Donella Meadows
Failing = pushing your limits: pg 153
“If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential.” “Life will inevitably bring you such moments, and it’ll be up to you to decide whether you want to go back for more.”
Standard motivational poster quote that should go above your bed. It’s true and I like being reminded of this every now and then.
Be audacious: pg 173
“Never rule out a goal because you think it’s unattainable.”… ”Be audacious. There is always a best possible path. Your job is to find it and have the courage to follow it. What you think is attainable is just a function of what you know at the moment.”
Second standard motivational poster quote that should go above your bed. It’s true and I like being reminded of this every now and then.
The “Who” of asking questions: pg 238
“One of the most important decisions you can make is who you ask questions of. Make sure they’re fully informed and believable. Find out who is responsibility for whatever you are seeking to understand and then ask them. Listing to uninformed people is worse that having no answers at all.”
I love this quote. Ray doesn’t even give you the option of not asking questions. He makes it inherent by going one step further and saying who you’re asking questions to is the most important part.
One of the nice parts about getting older is that you get more efficient. One of those efficiencies is the ability to 1. Go to the source of knowledge quickly and 2. Asking that source of knowledge an impactful question. This reminds me of a famous quote, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” - Voltaire.
Find a decision, make it: pg 266
“In order to have the best life possible you have to: 1) know what the best decisions are and 2) have the courage to make them.”
Straight forward enough right?
Selective Perception of other people’s successes: pg 351
“Fail well. Everyone fails. Anyone you see succeeding is only succeeding at the things you’re paying attention to—I guarantee they are also failing at lots of other things”
Everyone says fail well. I like the angle of selective perception. Most people, if not all, suffer some form of this.
Alignment Is King: pg 369
“When you have alignment, cherish it. While there is nobody in the world who will share your point of view on everything, there are people who will share your most important values and the ways in which you choose to live them out. Make sure you end up with those people.”
I only recently started to cherish alignment. The beauty of alignment is a bond of a common goal or understanding with another person or group. Once you combine that common goal, you’re going to achieve more than you would on your own.
January 22nd, 2018 11:36am
Written by
Greg Kamradt
At
Mon Jan 22 2018