Page 236 - Ray Dalio - Principles

During the next election, let’s do this in parallel with our
ordinary electoral process so we can see the difference.

While believability-weighted decision making can sound
complicated, chances are you do it all the time—pretty much

whenever you ask yourself, “Who should I listen to?” But it’s
almost certainly true that you’d do it a lot better if you gave
more thought to it.

5.11 Convert your principles into

algorithms and have the

computer make decisions

alongside you.

If you can do that, you will take the power of your decision
making to a whole other level. In many cases, you will be able

to test how that principle would have worked in the past or in
various situations that will help you refine it, and in all cases,
it will allow you to compound your understanding to a degree
that would otherwise be impossible. It will also take emotion
out of the equation. Algorithms work just like words in
describing what you would like to have done, but they are
written in a language that the computer can understand. If you

don’t know how to speak this language, you should either
learn it or have someone close to you who can translate for
you. Your children and their peers must learn to speak this
language because it will soon be as important or more
important than any other language.

By developing a partnership with your computer alter ego
in which you teach each other and each do what you do best,

you will be much more powerful than if you went about your
decision making alone. The computer will also be your link to
great collective decision making, which is far more powerful
than individual decision making, and will almost certainly
advance the evolution of our species.