Ray Dalio is a great fund manager and the founder of the investment firm Bridgewater Associates. In 2012, Dalio appeared on the annual Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. This book is about his fundamental and management principles.

The Importance of Priciples

Part 1 introduce the 3W1H of principles(What, Why Important, Where come from, How work).

• What are principles?
  Priciples are the guide that help one make decisions and take actions. When one face hard choices, he will turn to his principles. Principles are important to one's life.
• Why are principles important?
  Without principles, one would be forced to react to circumstances randomly. As a result, one can't foucs on his goal, and can't get what he want. Principles determine how to interact with the reality.
• Where do principles come from?
  People can forge one's own principles, or accept other's and holistic packages of principles, such as religion and legal systems. The key is, principles should reflect the values one really believe in.
• How well do you think principles will work, and why?
  By thinking and learning from one's experience, one can have his most valuable priciples, which can be applied to similar occasions in the future. When face hard choices, one need to refine his principles and become better.

My Most Fundamental Life Principles

Part 2 explain the author's fundamental Life Principles. List as follow:

• Truth --more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality-- is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.
  Seeking truth from facts, learning from experience. By looking at the way the world works and figuring out how to operate in harmony with it to help it(and oneself) evolve. This evolution is the natural movement toward better adaptation. And the desire to evolve is probably humanity's most pervasive driving force.
• The Personal Evolutionary Process
  
  This is the personal evolutionary process that fulfills most of people and moves society forward. As people and society are generally symbiotic, when people push themself to do the things that benefit them and contribute to society, in return, society rewards those who give what it wants.
• Reality + Dreams + Determination = A Successful Life
  People have to make a lot of decisions in their life. And the quality of life depends on the quality of the decisions they make.People not born to good at making decisions, they need to learn. Here list five decision trees to show five key types of choices.
  
  It is a fundamental law of nature that to evolve one has to push one's limit, which is painful, in order to gain strength--whether it's in the form of lifting weights, facing problems head-on, or in any other way. Nature give us pain as a messaging device to tell us that we are approaching, or that we have exceeded, our limit is in some way. At the same time, nature made the process of getting stronger require us to push out limits, which is painful. In other words, both pain and strength typically result from encountering one's barriers. When we encounter pain, we are at an important juncture in our decision-making process.
  
  Face harsh realities, then find ways of properly dealing with them.
  
  Don't just worry about looking good, face one's weaknesses, accept these weaknesses and don't let them stand in the way to success.
  
  Quite often the first-order consequeces are the temptations that cost us what we really want, and sometimes they are barries that stand in the way to getting what we really want. Think three times, then make the right decision.
  Fifth:
  
  Bad things come at everyone, and success come after dealing with them. Great people know that nature is testing them, and that it is not sympathetic. Here above are just some of choices we may face in the life. There are lots of other choices one will face and need to choose. So, one should think carefully, take the right one and learn from them. The quality of life depends on the quality of the decisions we make.

• Your Two Yous and Your Machine
  It's about higer level thinking. The perspective is of one who looking down on at the machine and oneself objectively. One should step back and design, operate and improve the "machine" to achieve the goal.
  
  Think of it as though there are two yous--you as the designer and overseer of the plan to achieve your goals(you1) and you as one of the participants in pursuing that mission(you2). You2 are a resource that you1 have to get what you1 want, but by no means your only resource. To be successfull you1 have to be objective about you2. The biggest mistakes people make is to not see themselves and others objectively.

• 5-step Process to Getting What You Want Out of Life
  By and large, life will give you what deserve and it doesn't give a damn what you "like". So it is up to you to take full responsibility to connect what you want with whatn you need to do to get it, and then to do those things--which often are difficult but produce good results--so that you'll then deserve to get what you want.
  When setting goal, one should know what he want, without confusing goals with desires, and without limiting because of fear. After knowing the goal, one can visualize it. Then prioritize the goal, rejecting other good alternatives if necessary.
  When identifying problems, one should remain centered and logical, perceive problems, not tolerate them.
  When diagnosing the problems, one should get at the root causes, and see multiple possibilities, and willing to touch people's nerves to overcome the ego barries that stand in the way of truth.
  When designing the plan, one should visualize the goal or problem standing in the way, and then visualize practical solutions.
  When doing tasks to archive the goals, one should be self-disciplined, proactive, results-oriented, and have good work habits.
  The 5-step process is iterative, one should operate this process again and again.

My Management Principles

Part 3 explain the author's management principles. They reflect the principles the fundamental principles. The 5-step process are as follow: And the evolutionary process is as follows.
Different from people, group have culture not design. Culure and people are the core of a group.

And, here comes list the table of management principles.

The mindmap above is only a summary of the principle table. There are 210 principles list in the book. They will be useful in the life and management, but not easy to digest and absorb as one's own principles.

It's a tiny and interesting book, the content is concise and useful. Part 2 (the fundamental principles) is my favorite part. In my view, the core in this book is to tell you to be an independent thinker, make mistakes and learning from experience.