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"Name names. Lay blame."
Sounds harsh, doesn't it? That's not a quote from the book. Nowhere in it does Ray Dalio write that verbatim. But it's my paraphrase, my summary of the whole book. To enjoy the kind of success Dalio has achieved, to practice anything he suggests, one must be willing to name names, and lay blame. Are you willing? Am I? |
Lately I've been reflecting a lot on the fact that loving = knowing on the one hand, and how on the other, most people in my life on both business and personal levels have not wanted to be known. So everybody wants love, and at the same time most people do not want to be known. There's the rub.
One could ask, why don't they want to be known? Reasons could vary. Shame, fear . . . in the final analysis though, the answer doesn't matter. All that matters is behavior.
I have a working theory that on a good day, 49% of the population are Closet Nihilists. On a bad day, the scale tips and the Nihilists gain a temporary majority.
Nihilism is the belief that Truth doesn't exist. Dalio's book is an implicit repudiation of Nihilism because it presupposes Truth's existence. It's a book about "Radical Truth" and "Radical Transparency", about an "Idea Meritocracy" and "Believability" or credibility.
So to take the book seriously at all, one must first repudiate Nihilism; otherwise its message will fall on deaf ears.
So before you approach the book, check yourself: are you a Closet Nihilist? If you are, deal with your Nihilism first before you even crack the book. If you're not, good news. Proceed, and enjoy all its benefits.
This book is all about knowing your people. Ray calls it "Knowing what people are like." He has come up with some really interesting tools to help with that like a "Dot Collector" that displays people's opinions about a given question on a screen for all to see during a meeting, "Baseball Cards" that he keeps on everybody in his company showing their pictures and statistics about their strengths and weaknesses, and a "Pain Button" people can push when they feel upset about knowing or being known, about the stress and rigors of working in an Idea Meritocracy.
He emphasizes that this kind of environment isn't for everybody, and the importance of knowing when to fire. His attitude seems pretty cold and ruthless, but he argues that in the final analysis, Accuracy = Kindness. He argues for Tough Love.
At the core of the book is a "Five Step Process" which I would simplify to three:
Without naming it as such, he places a huge emphasis on Reconciliation, or using Truth to resolve disagreements. To me this was like water for a parched man struggling to survive in a desert of "Agree to Disagree" absurdity. That's how he built a great team that makes excellent, profitable decisions. They hash out their disagreements in an evidence-based way, distinguishing clearly between opinion and fact.
The book is divided into three parts: "Where I'm Coming From", "Life Principles", and "Work Principles." The Work Principles part is divided further into three sections: Get the Culture Right, Get the People Right, and Build Your Machine.
Right Culture is about valuing Truth and reconciling, or resolving disagreements. Right People means, have people on your team who are not Nihilists, who want to work in an environment of Radical Truth and Radical Transparency, and who care about your business as if it were their own; people who have a strong sense of fiduciary duty . . . people who like accountability, who want to know and be known.
Tall order.
In the last section and elsewhere, where he compares developing a business to building a machine, he mentions "hearing the click" when you match the right person with the right position. That is such a cool way to put it, especially if you've ever suffered in a work environment where the wrong people were doing the wrong jobs. The very thought of "hearing the click" causes my heart rate to slow down and puts a smile on my face.
Of course you don't need a recommendation from me to read the book. It's already a #1 New York Times Best Seller. But as you can see from the above picture, I've tabbed it for future reference, especially the part in the middle where he provides a helpful coherent outline of his Life and Work Principles.
In the future, I hope to connect with like-minded people, the 51% who are not Closet Nihilists, and who want to work in an Idea Meritocracy as people like Ray and I do. In our opinion, they're the best.
Thanks for reading.
Respectfully offered,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322
One could ask, why don't they want to be known? Reasons could vary. Shame, fear . . . in the final analysis though, the answer doesn't matter. All that matters is behavior.
I have a working theory that on a good day, 49% of the population are Closet Nihilists. On a bad day, the scale tips and the Nihilists gain a temporary majority.
Nihilism is the belief that Truth doesn't exist. Dalio's book is an implicit repudiation of Nihilism because it presupposes Truth's existence. It's a book about "Radical Truth" and "Radical Transparency", about an "Idea Meritocracy" and "Believability" or credibility.
So to take the book seriously at all, one must first repudiate Nihilism; otherwise its message will fall on deaf ears.
So before you approach the book, check yourself: are you a Closet Nihilist? If you are, deal with your Nihilism first before you even crack the book. If you're not, good news. Proceed, and enjoy all its benefits.
This book is all about knowing your people. Ray calls it "Knowing what people are like." He has come up with some really interesting tools to help with that like a "Dot Collector" that displays people's opinions about a given question on a screen for all to see during a meeting, "Baseball Cards" that he keeps on everybody in his company showing their pictures and statistics about their strengths and weaknesses, and a "Pain Button" people can push when they feel upset about knowing or being known, about the stress and rigors of working in an Idea Meritocracy.
He emphasizes that this kind of environment isn't for everybody, and the importance of knowing when to fire. His attitude seems pretty cold and ruthless, but he argues that in the final analysis, Accuracy = Kindness. He argues for Tough Love.
At the core of the book is a "Five Step Process" which I would simplify to three:
- Have clear goals.
- Solve problems that obstruct them.
- Achieve your goals.
Without naming it as such, he places a huge emphasis on Reconciliation, or using Truth to resolve disagreements. To me this was like water for a parched man struggling to survive in a desert of "Agree to Disagree" absurdity. That's how he built a great team that makes excellent, profitable decisions. They hash out their disagreements in an evidence-based way, distinguishing clearly between opinion and fact.
The book is divided into three parts: "Where I'm Coming From", "Life Principles", and "Work Principles." The Work Principles part is divided further into three sections: Get the Culture Right, Get the People Right, and Build Your Machine.
Right Culture is about valuing Truth and reconciling, or resolving disagreements. Right People means, have people on your team who are not Nihilists, who want to work in an environment of Radical Truth and Radical Transparency, and who care about your business as if it were their own; people who have a strong sense of fiduciary duty . . . people who like accountability, who want to know and be known.
Tall order.
In the last section and elsewhere, where he compares developing a business to building a machine, he mentions "hearing the click" when you match the right person with the right position. That is such a cool way to put it, especially if you've ever suffered in a work environment where the wrong people were doing the wrong jobs. The very thought of "hearing the click" causes my heart rate to slow down and puts a smile on my face.
Of course you don't need a recommendation from me to read the book. It's already a #1 New York Times Best Seller. But as you can see from the above picture, I've tabbed it for future reference, especially the part in the middle where he provides a helpful coherent outline of his Life and Work Principles.
In the future, I hope to connect with like-minded people, the 51% who are not Closet Nihilists, and who want to work in an Idea Meritocracy as people like Ray and I do. In our opinion, they're the best.
Thanks for reading.
Respectfully offered,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322
