Principles

I recently finished reading Principles by Ray Dalio. Overall, it provided some good points on living life. I will write some of them here for me to reference back to later on.

Have a higher perspective of yourself and the world

Pain + Reflection = Progress

Success = Meaningful Work + Meaningful Relationships

We are fulfilled when we:

Do what we love
Do what we’re good at
Help the world
Get paid for it

Use Expected Value to make decisions:

Probability of success Reward > Probability of failure Penalty
- For example: Taking an umbrella with 40% chance of rain

Embrace reality and deal with it.

We need to face our weaknesses and the difficulties of our situation, rather than turning a blind eye towards them. To embrace reality, we need to observe the rules of life and nature. For example, anything in excess becomes unfavorable. To deal with reality, we need to own our outcomes and focus on the things in our control rather than complaining about things outside our control.

Overcome your two barriers to success: Ego and Blind spots

Use the 5-Step Process to get what you want out of life.

Here’s the 5-Step Process:

Have clear goals.
Identify the problems that stand in your way.
Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
Design plans that will get you around them.
Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.

Be radically open-minded.

Let go of your ego, which is controlled by the amygdala in your brain. This takes conscious effort, but it does get easier with practice. Being open-minded means instead of focusing on being right, you focus on finding the truth, even if it means you were wrong. It also means having thoughtful and productive disagreements with people rather than emotionally-charged unproductive ones.

Indicators of closed-minded versus open-minded people:

When there’s disagreement, closed-minded people get angry; Open-minded people get curious.
Closed-minded people make statements; Open-minded people ask questions out of curiosity.
Close-minded people focus on being understood; Open-minded people focus on understanding the other person.
Closed-minded people block others from speaking; Open-minded people prefer listening.
Closed-minded people have trouble holding two opposing thoughts in their minds; Open-minded people can take in other people’s thoughts without losing the ability to think well.
Close-minded people are confident that they’re right. Open-minded people fear that they may be wrong.

Understand that people are wired very differently.

Know the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and others. Just as we all have different physical attributes, we also all have different mental attributes. When you know yourself and others, you can better predicate their behavior and how well they will do certain things.

Know your objective strengths and weaknesses and those of others

Myers-Brigg test

Introversion VS Extroversion: Whether people prefer to work quietly alone or talking in groups.
Intuitive VS Observant: Intuitive people focus on the big picture; Observant people focus on details.
Thinking VS Feeling: Thinking people focus on logic; Feeling people focus on social harmony.
Judging VS Perceiving: Judgers (planners) like to make a plan and stick with it; Perceivers like to focus on the present and adapt to it. They often have trouble appreciating each other.
Assertive VS Turbulent: Assertive people are more self-confident and resistant to stress. Turbulent people experience more emotional swings and are always striving to improve themselves.

Find people with complementary strengths to help you along the 5-step process

Set goals — Visionary, good at high-level thinking and prioritization
Look for problems — Detective, good at perceiving and synthesis
Find root causes — Logical Analyzer, good at logic
Design solutions — Creative Architect, good at practicality and visualization
Execute and track progress — Reliable Task Master, good at self-disciple and achieving results

Make believability-weighted decisions by considering the credibility of people.

My distractions