Page 207 - Ray Dalio - Principles

Neuroscientists, psychologists, and evolutionists agree the human brain comes pre-
programmed with the need for and enjoyment of social cooperation. Our brains want it and
develop better when we have it. The meaningful relationships we get from social cooperation
make us happier, healthier, and more productive; social cooperation is also integral to effective
work. It is one of the defining characteristics of being human. 29
Leonard Mlodinow, in his excellent book Subliminal, writes, “We usually assume that what
distinguishes us [from other species] is IQ. But it is our social IQ that ought to be the principal
quality that differentiates us.” He points out that humans have a unique ability to understand
what other people are like and how they are likely to behave. The brain comes programmed to
develop this ability; by the time they are four years old, most children are able to read others’
mental states. This sort of human understanding and cooperation is what makes us so
accomplished as a species. As Mlodinow explains, “Building a car for example requires the
participation of thousands of people with diverse skills, in diverse lands, performing diverse
tasks. Metals like iron must be extracted from the ground and processed; glass, rubber, and
plastics must be created from numerous chemical precursors and molded; batteries, radiators
and countless other parts must be produced; electronic and mechanical systems must be
designed; and it all must come together, coordinated from far and wide, in one factory so that
the car can be assembled. Today, even the coffee and bagel you might consume while driving
to work in the morning is the result of the activities of people all over the world.”
In his book The Meaning of Human Existence, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Edward O.
Wilson surmises that between one million and two million years ago, when our ancestors were
somewhere between chimpanzees and modern homo sapiens, the brain evolved in ways
supporting cooperation so man could hunt and do other activities. This led the centers of
memory and reasoning in the prefrontal cortex to develop beyond those of our primate
relatives. As groups became more powerful than individuals and our brains evolved in ways
that made larger groups manageable, competition between groups became more important than
competition between individuals and groups that had more cooperative individuals did better
than those without them. This evolution led to the development of altruism, morality, and the
sense of conscience and honor. Wilson explains that man is perpetually suspended between the
two extreme forces that created us: “Individual selection [which] prompted sin and group
selection [which] promoted virtue.”
Which of these forces (self-interest or collective interest) wins out in any organization is a
function of that organization’s culture, which is a function of the people who shape it. But it’s
clear that collective interest is what’s best, not just for the organization but for the individuals
who make it up. As I’ll explain in Work Principles, the rewards of working together to make
the pie bigger are greater than the rewards of self-interest, not only in terms of how much “pie”
one gets but also in the psychic rewards wired into our brains that make us happier and
healthier.
Knowing how the brain has evolved thus far, we might extrapolate the past into the future to
imagine where it will go. Clearly the evolution of the brain has moved from being nonthinking
and self-focused toward being more abstract and more universally focused. For example, the
brain evolution that I described has given us (some people more than others) the ability to see
ourselves and our circumstances from a higher holistic level and, in some cases, to value the
whole that we are part of even more than ourselves.

A few years ago, I had a conversation with the Dalai Lama in which I explained to him the
contemporary neuroscience view that all of our thinking and feeling is due to physiology (in
other words, the chemicals, electricity, and biology in our brains working like a machine). This
implied that spirituality is due to these physiological mechanics rather than something coming
from above, so I asked him what he thought about that. Without hesitation, he responded
“Absolutely!” and told me that the next day he was meeting with the University of Wisconsin
professor of neuroscience who had helped him learn about this, and he asked me if I wanted to
join him. Regrettably, I couldn’t but I recommended to him a book I’d read on the subject
called The Spiritual Brain (which I also recommend to you). In our conversation, we went on
to discuss the similarities and differences between spirituality and religion. His view was that
prayer and meditation seemed to have similar effects on the brain in producing feelings of