Why is a smart man ruined

1. "Why is a smart man ruined when he lives crazy hard?" said Ray Dalio, one of the richest men in the world, a question he was obsessed with as a young man.

2. No, that's how Ray Dalio lived his life. I didn't study very much in high school, but I became interested in the field of investment at university, so I entered Harvard Business School and achieved good grades.

3. In addition, he joined a financial company with the highest salary among the graduates at the time. The smart man lived his life hard, but the company he worked for went bankrupt or fired him.

4. Then, I started running a company called Bridgewater, which I made for fun with my friend, and it worked out well, predicted the Great Depression, made a big bet, but when it was wrong, I had to fire all my employees, and I had to borrow money from my father for a living.

5. Thus, in the greatest crisis of his life, he not only thought he was smart, but he also agonized over why he had failed even though he had lived hard. And he realized at the end of that despair.

6. No matter how smart and hard you live, humans have two obstacles that stand in the way of success, or, more precisely, success. They are 1) ego and 2) blind spots.

7. Whether smart or not, humans are bound to be attached to the ideas they have come up with. Therefore, humans are often obsessed with their own answers even though they are not the best answers. As such, Ego makes me obsessed with the best answer that comes to mind, not the best answer, and the quality of decision-making deteriorates.

8. So Egora needs to be able to get out of prison so that he can get beyond the best judgment I can make and approach the best judgment (=truth).

9. However, this is not enough. Humans are forced to create blind spots of judgment because they view the world from their own experiences and perspectives. Therefore, in order to make the right decisions, you must transparently share your thoughts with others and connect with people who will fill in your blind spots. Unconditionally.

10. So Ray Dalio asks people who have succeeded at least three times in the field and are able to logically explain their methods to make sure they are correct. He specifically asks them to express their opinions, not to agree, but to express their thoughtful objections.

11. Through this process, Ray Dalio's perspective has changed from 'I'm right' to 'How do I know I'm right?'

12. As such, Ray Dalio tried to solve these two problems he discovered, which were integrated into a single solution. That is the 'extreme openness' that Ray Dalio emphasizes in "Principles".

13. In order to make the right decision, it is not to argue that one's opinion is right, but to be extremely open and ask others for their opinions and verify and confirm whether my opinion is really right.

14. And Ray Dalio argues that he succeeded by changing his way of thinking. In other words, no matter how hard a smart person works, he is also a human being, so he has no choice but to fall into the swamp and blind spot, and no matter how hard he works, he can fail.

15. Furthermore, Ray Dalio tried to transplant this principle he realized into the company, and the result was "idea meritocracy."

16. In other words, the company did not follow someone's opinion, but rather tried to build a system in which the most correct opinion prevailed. Of course, there are negative views on the demand for extreme openness from members of the company,

17. No matter how you do it, the opinions of Ray Dalio, the company's most experienced success, are given more weight, so the words seem plausible, but some people ask if it's an autocratic system after all.

18. Of course, I think that's a valid criticism. However, what's important is whether Ray Dalio still asks others for their opinions while maintaining extreme openness so as not to fall into the swamp or blind spot of Ego?

19. And since about a decade ago, Ray Dalio has been attempting to succeed the company so that it can roll over even if it's not working out. Although it hasn't worked out well, controversy and criticism have continued.

20. Anyway, if smart people fail after living a fierce life, most people blame fate and luck, but at least Ray Dalio wasn't, and he was obsessed with finding a reason and found his own solution. Don't we need to learn this attitude? I summarized my thoughts while preparing for this week's Principles Book Club! Fighting ;)

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