What I Have For You

About 30 years ago I got in the habit of writing down what I was going after and how I went after it (i.e. my principles) so I’ve done that ever since. The principles I accumulated along the way made me and my company Bridgewater successful beyond our wildest dreams. Over these years I also developed “tools,” mostly apps, that helped us to operate by these principles. At this transition stage in my life, my main goal is to help others be successful by passing along these principles and tools.

My most important principles are about having principles and thinking in a principled way. While the principles that have worked well for me have been invaluable and I will pass them along for your consideration, I believe that what is most important is that you think for yourself in a principled way so that you have your own clearly articulated and internalized principles that work well for you. When I refer to “you,” I am referring to you individually and you collectively in all of your collectives (i.e., your families, your organizations, your communities, your countries, etc.). For these reasons I hope to 1) clearly convey what I mean by principled thinking so that you can consider the merits of it and 2) help you get whatever principles you want that are good for you.??

What I Mean by Principled Thinking

By principled thinking I mean embracing reality, seeing how reality works and having effective ways for dealing with reality (i.e., principles). Reality works like a machine that has cause:effect relationships so by understanding these relationships and knowing how to interact with reality well, you can make better decisions which will give you better outcomes and a better life.

When one sees things through this principled lens, one sees that most things happen over and over again for basically the same reasons. In other words, most everything is just “another one of those” that has happened many times before and has clear ways of being dealt with well. So, in going from regular thinking to principled thinking 1) one goes from being in a blizzard of unrelated things to encountering a far fewer number of types of things that are familiar and 2) one develops tried and true principles for dealing with one’s realities well. By thinking in this principled way, life becomes easier because there are many fewer types of things than there are things and one’s dealing with them is more straightforward and effective. For example, think about how batting against different types of pitches being thrown at you works. As you practice batting against curveballs, fast balls, and sliders you naturally learn to distinguish between them and to instinctively use principles for dealing with each well so you become a much better batter.

There are higher level principles that are essentially philosophies about how to approach life (like religions) and there are varying degrees of lower level principles for making more tactical decisions. When one chooses one’s own mix of principles, one essentially chooses one’s philosophy of life or one’s own religion that goes from the philosophical to the tactical.??

The Principles I’m Passing Along

The principles and tools that I’m passing along are about life, work, economics, and investments because those four areas are the ones I’ve worked hard on, developed principles for, and have a built track records that you can look at to assess how well these principles worked. I hope to present the principles for each of these four areas in two forms: short videos and books. Thus far I have created videos and books for three of the four areas. The others are in the works.

Currently available are:

1)?Four Short Videos:?These include three animated videos that provide distilled versions of 1)?the life principles in “Principles for Success” (here), 2) the economic principles in “How the Economic Machine Works” (here) and 3) the key ideas from my book Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order (here). There is also a 16 minute TED Talk that briefly conveys my work principles (here). They are free and have been assessed to be very useful. Together they have been watched a total of over 50 million times and have a 98% ratio of likes to dislikes.

2)?Four?Books:?So far over 5 million copies of my books have been sold and have been extremely well received. Principles: Life?&?Work is available as a book in all the usual ways books are now available—in paper, digital, and audio here?at the usual costs for such things. You can see some of the endorsements of it on?principles.com. The book is also available in app form for free in “Principles in Action”?here.?"Principles in Action"?is for people who want to delve most deeply into the life and work principles. It includes real life video cases of the principles in action at my company, Bridgewater Associates, and a “Coach” tool that helps people find the best principles for their particular situations, capture their own principles and have easy access to them. It contains everything in the most digestible form and is free. So far “Principles in Action” has been?downloaded over?420,000?times and has received an average review of 4.9 (out of 5).

I?wrote?“Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises,” which is for people who are interested in how debt cycles work and how to navigate them. It’s available in print form on Amazon (here) or for free as a pdf (here). Thus far?over?1 million copies?have been sold or downloaded and it has been favorably reviewed by leading economists and policy makers.

My newest book, "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order," is a study on the rises and declines of past leading empires that puts today’s economic, political, and policy situation into perspective of the big picture.?It was positively reviewed by Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Larry Summers, and many others who have found it essential reading to understand the ways in which the world is now changing.?

3) In response to lots of requests for a simpler version of Principles for readers of all ages, I wrote "Principles for Success", which is?available?on Amazon or through your local bookseller. It’s a quick, entertaining, illustrated and valuable read that summarizes the most important life principles in my big book, "Principles: Life?&?Work". I hope you, or whoever you gift it to, love it.

4) Since I published “Principles: Life & Work,” many people have asked me to pass along the tools that I described in it. Because of these requests, I had some of the tools reengineered and improved so they could be used by lots of people outside Bridgewater in a secure way and be even better than they were when I wrote the book. The first two of these tools that I will be passing along are PrinciplesYou, which is free, and Principles Dot Collector.

PrinciplesYou is a personality profile test that helps people understand themselves and understand others they are interacting with. I’ve found psychometric tests to be invaluable in understanding different people’s different approaches to thinking and that achieving that understanding is invaluable for people’s personal development, finding their right job fit, and building teams.??

In the past, I used a number of personality profile tests because I never found one that gave me everything I was looking for. For that reason over the last couple of years, I engaged three great psychometricians - Adam Grant, Brian Little and John Golden - to work with me to build a test that takes about 40 minutes and provides far more comprehensive descriptions of people's thinking preferences than any other tests of comparable length. It also provides better interpersonal guidance to pairs and/or groups of people who take it.???

The assessment is now available for free to everyone here and as a tool for organizations here.?The Principles Dot Collector, which?provides continuous real-time feedback and insights about what people are thinking, is available as an app within the Zoom apps platform.

5) With my son Mark Dalio I co-founded?OceanX?with a goal of inspiring the next generation of?ocean?scientists and explorers, just like Jacques Cousteau inspired me as a kid.?OceanX?is a deeply engaged global community of explorers, scientists, and storytellers dedicated to educating, inspiring, and protecting the?oceans. To bring you along on this journey, I’ve partnered with National Geographic, the BBC, and James Cameron on the?OceanXplorers?series, which you can watch now on the National Geographic Channel, Disney+, and Hulu. The?OceanX?team has also created a series of children’s chapter books,?OceanX?Adventures, each mystery is based on actual?oceanic?science research and discoveries, and is filled with fascinating facts about the?ocean?world.

In addition to providing these principles and tools, I’m interacting with people about these principles and about what’s happening in the world through the lens of principles on LinkedIn,?Facebook,?Twitter,?Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

In the coming months and years I plan to share a few more books and animations, and then I will be done and go quiet as I will have completed this transition phase in my life.?

How You Might Approach What’s Now Available

If you haven’t seen any of this, I suggest that you pick the short videos about the type of principles that you’re interested in (life, work, or economics) and, if you want more, delve into the book that most suits you. If you want one thing that has everything in it, the “Principles in Action” app is your best option.

I welcome you to stay in touch with me on social media and provide me with your thoughts and suggestions as I enjoy interacting with others and hearing their thoughts on what I'm sharing.