By Ray Dalio
I was introduced to the book years ago at a previous job. My manager would read random principles to the office. It seemed like bloated fluff then and I didn’t think much of Dalio’s advice. Still, the book showed up on many lists from other leaders about top leadership references. I figured I’d give it a chance. In the beginning of the book, where he tells his personal story, Dalio came across as a more agreeable person than I anticipated. My hope for the rest of the text increased compared to the low point where it started. That didn’t last. The book is just an ego trip. For starters, the title is entirely misleading about the contents. It is not a refined set of high level principles, it is a bloated list of thoughts that seem like good ideas to Dalio. On the whole, the ideas are mostly fine, but they are closer to tactical micromanagement than principles. Dalio admits up front that he wasn’t much of a student and the book reflects that. It is a list of things that seemed to work from him, but as much as he likes to mention data driven decision making, these ideas are not about that. He misattributes a few ideas, contradicts evidence-based management practices at other points, and holds up MBTI as part of Bridgewater’s scientific approach. Obviously he made a bajillion dollars, so there’s no arguing that he wasn’t successful. Still, there’s no strong evidence that the reasons for his success are the things described in his book. Successful people are regularly unreliable at determining the true most import factors in their success. The book doesn’t make any hints that Dalio even attempted to determine whether any of his principles were responsible for the results. It’s more a biography focused on his work life. It reads like: “This is what I did. I made a lot of money. I had to tell everyone about it so that they could benefit from my genius plan for success.” While he claims that it could be applied elsewhere, there are no attempts to separate the concepts from his environment of an investing firm. Oddly, he also repeats that everyone should find their own principles, so I’m not sure what we need his rambling for.
Most management/leadership books leave me with a couple nuggets that I can take away. This just became a list of some stuff that one might want to do if one was CEO of a hedge fund. Despite the blip of hope in the early pages, I came around to the original negative view. It’s just a self important rich guy patting himself on the back for being a rich guy.