Life Principles

Recently finished Life Principles from Ray Dalio three-part book called Principles. Though I don't agree with all the things in his book there are some key takeaways I want to record as part of my ongoing reading and learning. Things that are useful hacks are worth keeping.

Key takeaway 1: Embrace Reality and Deal with it

• To embrace reality be a hyperrealist. Being radically open-minded and radically transparent are invaluable for rapid learning and effective change. Embracing radical truth and seeking radical transparency will bring more meaningful work and meaningful relationships. Look at nature on how reality works. To be "good" something must operate consistently with the laws o reality and contribute to the evolution of the whole. Evolve or die is natures best way of purging and editing. Finally, don't let fears of what others think of you stand in the way.

Pain + Reflection = Progress

• In the evolution of yourself don't avoid pain, betting against yourself for learning is embracing change and being persistent at things you want to understand. Maximize your evolution, remember "no pain, no gain". It is a fundamental law of nature that in order to gain strength one has to push one's limits, which is usually painful.
• Own your outcomes. 
• Look at the machine from the higher level: Think of yourself as a machine operating within a machine and know that you have the ability to alter your machines to produce better outcomes.  By comparing your outcomes with goals you can determine how to modify your machine. 
• Distinguish between you as a designer of your machine and you as a worker with your machine. The biggest mistake most people make is to not see themselves and other objectively, which leads them to bump into their own and others' weaknesses again and again. Asking others who are strong in areas where you are weak to help you is a great skill that you should develop no matter what, as it will help you develop guardrails that will prevent you from doing what you shouldn't be doing. 
• Because it is difficult to see oneself objectively you have to rely on the input of others and the whole body of evidence. 

Key Takeaway 2: Understand That People are Wired Very Differently

• Understand the power that comes from knowing how you and others are wired. 
• Meaningful work and meaningful relationships aren't just nice things we chose for ourselves - they are genetically programmed into us. 
• Understand the great brain battles and how to control them to get what "you" want. 
• Know that the most constant struggle is between feeling and thinking.
• Choose your habits well
• Train your "lower level you" with kindness and persistence to build the right habits
• Understand the differences between right-brained and left-brained thinking
• Understand how much the brain can and cannot change. 
• Find out what you and others are like
• Planning versus perceiving, introversion vs extroversion, intuiting vs sensing, creators vs refiners vs advancers vs executors vs flexors
• Workplace personality inventory
• Shapers are people who can go from visualization to actualization. 
• Getting the right people in the right roles in support of your goals is the key to succeeding at whatever you choose to accomplish. 

Key Takeaway 3: Learn How to Make Decisions Effectively

• Recognize the biggest threat to decision making is harmful emotions and decision making is a two-step process first learning and then deciding.
• Synthesis of the situation at hand
• Synthesize the situation through time
• Navigate levels effectively
• Logic, reason and common sense are your best tools for synthesizing reality and understanding what to do about it
• Making your decisions as expected value calculations
• Raising the probability of being right is valuable no matter what your probability of being right already is
• Knowing when not to bet is as important as knowing what bets are probably worth making
• The best choices are the ones that have more pros than cons, not those that don has any cons at all. 
• Prioritize by weighing the value of additional information against the cost of not deciding. 
• Don't mistake possibilities for probabilities. 
• Simplify - Chances are you won't have time to deal with the unimportant things, which is better than not having time to deal with the important things. 
• All of your "must do's" must be above over the bar before you do your "like-to dos"
• Build your principles
• Believability weight your decision making
• Be cautious of trusting AI without having a deep understanding