Page 163 - Ray Dalio - Principles

gives you the ability to study and influence the cause-effect
relationships at play in your life and use them to get the
outcomes you want.

a. Think of yourself as a machine operating within a machine and know that
you have the ability to alter your machines to produce better outcomes. You
have your goals. I call the way you will operate to achieve
your goals your machine. It consists of a design (the things
that have to get done) and the people (who will do the things
that need getting done). Those people include you and those
who help you. For example, imagine that your goal is a

military one: to take a hill from an enemy. Your design for
your “machine” might include two scouts, two snipers, four
infantrymen, and so on. While the right design is essential, it is
only half the battle. It is equally important to put the right
people in each of those positions. They need different qualities
to do their jobs well—the scouts must be fast runners, the
snipers must be good marksmen—so that the machine will

produce the outcomes you seek.

b. By comparing your outcomes with your goals, you can determine how to
modify your machine. This evaluation and improvement process
exactly mirrors the evolutionary process I described earlier. It
means looking at how to improve or change the design or
people to achieve your goals. Schematically, the process is a
feedback loop, as shown in the diagram on the opposite page.