Book Summary - Principles by Ray Dalio

His Beliefs and Concepts

• "Principles" - existing law of nature or mechanism behind it. Align and prosper, go against and be ruined.
• Evolution - one of the greatest force in the universe, a natural movement towards adaptation. It applies to many human stuff, including morality "good vs bad".
• Evolution as a goal - desire to evolve is humanity's most pervasive driving force. "personal evolutionary process"
• Hyper-realism - Map vs Territory. We should strive for the truth, accept it, or do something. Don't "hope" for better reality. An accurate understanding of reality is the essential foundation of good outcomes. therefore "Brutal honesty/."
• Independent thinking - consensus is often wrong (really? wisdom of crowds?) and bad opinions can be costly. So think for yourself and stress-test your idea with people smarter than you.
• Failure is a feedback loop for learning, and a guiding light to good outcomes. The faster you learn the faster you get to the goals.

His Model for Decision Making

Goals - your goals

Outcomes - intended results

Machine - the process of achieving your gals. Basically 2 big things

Design - good system that iteratively get you closer to your goals. (gradient descent)

People - human elements in your machine.

"Two" You (System I and II)

• One is the master planner - monitor and tweak your machine. ideal rationalist. free of emotion.
• Another is an executor - treat yourself other "people" in your machine, looking top-down.

5-Step Process to getting what you want out of life

1. Choose your goals - have clear goals
2. Design a plan
3. Encounter problems (by executing your plan)
4. Diagnose the problems
5. Redesign or tweak a plan that will get will get you around your problems

You must approach this as distinct steps (not blur them together). Because else you will not allocate appropriate time/effort for each step. And the process is iterative so good to do them in order.