April 13, 2022

Understanding What Is True Is Essential For Success

Understanding what is true is essential for success, and being radically transparent about everything, including mistakes and weaknesses, helps create the understanding that leads to improvements.

That’s not just a theory; we have put this into practice at Bridgewater for over forty years, so we know how it works. But like most things in life, being radically truthful and transparent has cons as well as pros, which I will describe as accurately as possible.

Being radically truthful and transparent with your colleagues and expecting your colleagues to be the same with you ensures that important issues are apparent instead of hidden. It also enforces good behavior and good thinking, because when you have to explain yourself, everyone can openly assess the merits of your logic.

If you are handling things well, radical transparency will make that clear, and if you are handling things badly, radical transparency will make that clear as well, so it helps to maintain high standards.

Radical truth and radical transparency are fundamental to having a real idea meritocracy. The more people can see what is happening—the good, the bad, and the ugly—the more effective they are at deciding the appropriate ways of handling things.

This approach is also invaluable for training: Learning is compounded and accelerated when everyone has the opportunity to hear what everyone else is thinking.

As a leader, you will get the feedback essential for your learning and for the continual improvement of the organization’s decision-making rules. And seeing firsthand what’s happening and why builds trust and allows people to make the independent assessments of the evidence that a functioning idea meritocracy requires.


April 4, 2022

Why Most People Make Bad Decisions

Most people make bad decisions because they are so certain that they're right that they don't allow themselves to see the better alternatives that exist. Radically open-minded people know that coming up with the right questions and asking other smart people what they think is as important as having all the answers.


Don’t Lower The Bar.

You reach a point in all relationships when you must decide whether you are meant for each other - that's common in private life and at any organization that holds very high standards.

At Bridgewater, we know that we cannot compromise on the fundamentals of our culture, so if a person cannot operate within our requirements of excellence through radical truth and transparency in an acceptable time frame, he or she must leave. 

October 8, 2021

Principle Of The Day

Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. The key to success is understanding one's weaknesses and successfully compensating for them. People who lack that ability fail chronically.



January 26, 2021

Where You Go In Life

Where you go in life will depend on how you see things and who and what you feel connected to (your family, your community, your country, mankind, the whole ecosystem, everything).

You will have to decide to what extent you will put the interests of others above your own, and which others you will choose to do so for.

December 30, 2020

Why People Make Bad Decisions

Most people make bad decisions because they are so certain that they're right that they don't allow themselves to see the better alternatives that exist.

Radically open-minded people know that coming up with the right questions and asking other smart people what they think is as important as having all the answers.

Understand How People Came By Their Opinions

Our brains work like computers: they input data and process it in accordance with their wiring and programming. Any opinion you have is made up of these two things: the data and your processing or reasoning.

When someone says, "I believe X," ask them: What data are you looking at? What reasoning are you using to draw your conclusion? Dealing with raw opinions will get you and everyone else confused; understanding where they come from will help you get to the truth.

December 22, 2020

Two People Who Collaborate Well (1+1=3)

Two people who collaborate well will be about three times as effective as each of them operating independently, because each will see what the other might miss—plus they can leverage each other’s strengths while holding each other accountable to higher standards.

Principle Of The Day: Teams Should Operate Like Those In Professional Sports

Teams should operate like those in professional sports, where different skills are required to play different positions. Excellence in each is mandatory, the success of the mission is uncompromisable, and members that don’t measure up may need to be cut.

December 9, 2020

Thoughts on Bitcoin

I think that Bitcoin (and some other digital currencies) have, over the last ten years, established themselves as interesting gold-like asset alternatives, with similarities and differences to gold and other limited-supply, mobile (unlike real estate) store holds of wealth.

As far Bitcoin relative to gold, I have a strong preference for holding those things which central banks are going to want to hold and exchange value in when they are trying to transact.