Ray Dalio: Principles, the Economic Machine, Artificial Intelligence & the Arc of Life

Ray Dalio is the founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest and most successful investment firms that is famous for the principles of radical truth and transparency that underlie its culture. Ray is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with ideas that extend far beyond the specifics of how he made that wealth. His ideas, applicable to everyone, are brilliantly summarized in his book Principles.

This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.

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Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

00:00 – Introduction
02:56 – Doing something that’s never been done before
08:39 – Shapers
13:28 – A Players
15:09 – Confidence and disagreement
17:10 – Don’t confuse dilusion with not knowing
24:38 – Idea meritocracy
27:39 – Is credit good for society?
32:59 – What is money?
37:13 – Bitcoin and digital currency
41:01 – The economic machine is amazing
46:24 – Principle for using AI
58:55 – Human irrationality
1:01:31 – Call for adventure at the edge of principles
1:03:26 – The line between madness and genius
1:04:30 – Automation
1:07:28 – American dream
1:14:02 – Can money buy happiness?
1:19:48 – Work-life balance and the arc of life
1:28:01 – Meaning of life