Page 157 - Ray Dalio - Principles

Because we are capable of conscious, memory-based learning,
we can evolve further and faster than any other species,
changing not just across generations but within our own

lifetimes.

This constant drive toward learning and improvement
makes getting better innately enjoyable and getting better fast
exhilarating. Though most people think that they are striving
to get the things (toys, bigger houses, money, status, etc.) that
will make them happy, for most people those things don’t
supply anywhere near the long-term satisfaction that getting

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better at something does. Once we get the things we are
striving for, we rarely remain satisfied with them. The things
are just the bait. Chasing after them forces us to evolve, and it
is the evolution and not the rewards themselves that matters to
us and to those around us. This means that for most people
success is struggling and evolving as effectively as possible,
i.e., learning rapidly about oneself and one’s environment, and

then changing to improve.

It is natural that it should be this way because of the law of
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diminishing returns. Consider what acquiring money is like.
People who earn so much that they derive little or no marginal
gains from it will experience negative consequences, as with
any other form of excess, like gluttony. If they are
intellectually healthy, they will begin seeking something new

or seeking new depths in something old—and they will get
stronger in the process. As Freud put it, “Love and work are
the cornerstones of our humanness.”

The work doesn’t necessarily have to be a job, though I
believe it’s generally better if it is a job. It can be any kind of
long-term challenge that leads to personal improvement. As
you might have guessed, I believe that the need to have

meaningful work is connected to man’s innate desire to
improve. And relationships are the natural connections to
others that make us relevant to each other and to society more
broadly.

b. Remember “no pain, no gain.” Realizing that we innately want to
evolve—and that the other stuff we are going after, while nice,

won’t sustain our happiness—has helped me focus on my