Principles

Think about your problem as a set of outcomes produced by a machine. Practice higher-level thinking by looking down on your machine and thinking about how it can be changed to produce better outcomes

Less experienced, less believable people may not be necessary to decide an issue, but if the issue involves them and you aren’t in sync with them, that lack of understanding will in the long run likely undermine morale and the organization’s efficiency.

AD
Avoid facing “harsh realities.”
GOOD
Face “harsh realities.”
BAD
Worry about appearing good.
GOOD
Worry about achieving the goal.
BAD
Make your decisions on the basis of first-order consequences.
GOOD
Make your decisions on the basis of first-, second-, and third-order consequences.
BAD
Allow pain to stand in the way of progress.
GOOD
Understand how to manage pain to produce progress.
BAD
Don’t hold yourself and others accountable.
GOOD
Hold yourself and others accountable.

To neutralize that I suggest you simply say, “Let’s agree that I am a dumb shit but I still need to make sense of this, so let’s move slowly to make sure that happens.”
One should always feel free to ask questions, while remembering one’s obligation to remain open-minded in the discussions that follow. Record your argument so that if you can’t get in sync or make sense of things, you can send it out so others can decide. And of course, remember that you are operating in an idea meritocracy—be mindful of your own believability.

you must not let your need to be right be more important than your need to find out what’s true. If you are too proud of what you know or of how good you are at something you will learn less, make inferior decisions, and fall short of your potential.

2.5 Treasure honorable people who are capable and will treat you well even when you’re not looking.

They are rare. Such relationships take time to build and can only be built if you treat such people well.

Organisms, organizations, and individual people are always highly imperfect but capable of improving. So rather than getting stuck hiding our mistakes and pretending we’re perfect, it makes sense to find our imperfections and deal with them. You will either learn valuable lessons from your mistakes and press on, better equipped to succeed—or you won’t and you will fail.

first identifying its species and then, drawing on his prior knowledge about its expected behaviors, reacting appropriately.

APPENDIX
TOOLS AND PROTOCOLS FOR BRIDGEWATER’S IDEA MERITOCRACY

Evolve or die. This evolutionary cycle is not just for people but for countries, companies, economies—for everything. And it is naturally self-correcting as a whole, though not necessarily for its parts. For example, if there is too much supply and waste in a market, prices will go down, companies will go out of business, and capacity will be reduced until the supply falls in line with the demand, at which time the cycle will start to move in the opposite direction. Similarly, if an economy turns bad enough, those responsible for running it will make the political and policy changes that are needed—or they will not survive, making room for their replacements to come along. These cycles are continuous and play out in logical ways—and they tend to be self-reinforcing.