market folly

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates sat down with Charles Duhigg at The New York Times New Work Summit to talk about building culture and how it relates to his hedge fund where he encourages radical transparency.
    
Dalio says: "I want an idea meritocracy.  I want independent thinkers who are gonna disagree.  The most important thing I want is meaningful work and meaningful relationships and the way to get that is through radical transparency."

Dalio also notes he gave everyone at Bridgewater a copy of Duhigg's book, The Power of Habit. 

The Bridgewater founder feels this transparency (once you get over the emotional reaction of the 'naked truth') develops much deeper, more meaningful conversations.

On markets, he went on to add: "The markets teach you humility and they teach you what works.  You have to be an independent thinker in markets to be successful because the consensus is built into the price.  You have to have a view that's different from the consensus.  When you have a view that's different from the consensus, you're gonna be wrong a certain number of times.  It teaches you humility.  The most important thing is to have humility and to think about 'how do I get the best decision?' It doesn't have to come from me, I just want to be right."

Dalio concluded:  "Decision making should be two steps: the first step is taking in information, particularly if there's disagreement, and then to make a decision ... it's so stupid not to take the time to take in and explore disagreement that might help you prevent yourself from being wrong."

Embedded below is video of Ray Dalio's interview: