Page 456 - Ray Dalio - Principles

approach have been pretty great for Bridgewater for more than
forty years. Because this approach can work equally well in
most organizations, I wanted to lay it out clearly and in detail.

While you needn’t follow this idea-meritocratic approach
exactly as I’ve done it, the big question is: Do you want to
work in an idea meritocracy? If so, what is the best way for
you to do that?

An idea meritocracy requires people to do three things: 1)
Put their honest thoughts on the table for everyone to see, 2)
Have thoughtful disagreements where there are quality back-

and-forths in which people evolve their thinking to come up
with the best collective answers possible, and 3) Abide by
idea-meritocratic ways of getting past the remaining
disagreements (such as believability-weighted decision
making). While an idea meritocracy doesn’t have to operate
exactly in any particular way, it does have to by and large
follow those three steps. Don’t worry about remembering all

the particular principles that I gave you in this book. Just go
after having an idea meritocracy and figure out what works for
you by encountering your trade-offs and coming up with your
principles for handling them.

In my case, I wanted meaningful work and meaningful
relationships, and I believed that being radically truthful and
radically transparent were required to get those. Then I went

after them and encountered problems that forced me to make
choices. By writing down how I made these choices, I was
able to flesh out my principles, which led me to shape
Bridgewater’s idea meritocracy with the people I worked with
so that it would work well for us. As you set out on your own

and encounter your own impediments, you might want to refer
back to these principles because chances are that I’ve
encountered many of the same impediments, did my wrestling
with how to handle them, and laid out my thinking in
principles. And then write down your own.

Of course, people’s abilities to influence how their group
works vary, and I don’t know your circumstances. But I do

know that if you want to work in an idea-meritocratic way,
you can find your own way of doing that. Maybe it will be by
helping shape your organization from the top, maybe it will be