I found this fascinating but, as someone who found it too hard to read, memorise and utilise it all. Are some principles most important to prioritise in your opinion and some principles hardest/rarest to practice? Also, do you feel reading this book genuinely changed much in your life?
After speaking with a few charity entrepreneurs related to EA, it seems this book is the white whale of charity leaders; highly sought after but far too big to take on. Any summarising thoughts would be awesome to hear!
I’ve only recently finished the book, so don’t have much advice regarding putting the principles into practice unfortunately… though hopefully someone else does and can comment here too :)
A lot of the Principles relate to managing a bigger organisation than mine… Having said that I am trying to implement more robust decision tracking etc. in my org based on the ideas of thinking of your organisation as an optimisation “machine” to achieve a goal (and some of the suggestions he has in the book of how to do that)
The reason I pulled this out as a list though is that I find it really valuable just being able to see the key 20 principles as the section headers, then I can dig down into the sub-principles if I need a reminder
Happy to chat more but please don’t think of me as the Principles guru, just someone who wanted an on-the-go reference/refresher :)
IMO the “most important” principle will depend on where you are in life at the time. This seems to be a book worth re-reading throughout life and the same passage can mean different things at different points in life. If I recall, Dalio separates his principles into those more for personal life and those more for business/dealing with others. I think the personal principles which you have full control of today, are worth comparing and contemplating first. Something such as “how to hire” may not be as relevant if you are not currently in a position to hire. (Counterpoint, it is worth flipping the principle around and consider how we might be a good hire or employee as an auxiliary exercise).
Personally, I found the diagnosing oneself immediately actionable.
I found this fascinating but, as someone who found it too hard to read, memorise and utilise it all. Are some principles most important to prioritise in your opinion and some principles hardest/rarest to practice? Also, do you feel reading this book genuinely changed much in your life?
After speaking with a few charity entrepreneurs related to EA, it seems this book is the white whale of charity leaders; highly sought after but far too big to take on. Any summarising thoughts would be awesome to hear!
Hey there!
I’ve only recently finished the book, so don’t have much advice regarding putting the principles into practice unfortunately… though hopefully someone else does and can comment here too :)
A lot of the Principles relate to managing a bigger organisation than mine… Having said that I am trying to implement more robust decision tracking etc. in my org based on the ideas of thinking of your organisation as an optimisation “machine” to achieve a goal (and some of the suggestions he has in the book of how to do that)
The reason I pulled this out as a list though is that I find it really valuable just being able to see the key 20 principles as the section headers, then I can dig down into the sub-principles if I need a reminder
Happy to chat more but please don’t think of me as the Principles guru, just someone who wanted an on-the-go reference/refresher :)
Hi Prof.Wierd,
IMO the “most important” principle will depend on where you are in life at the time. This seems to be a book worth re-reading throughout life and the same passage can mean different things at different points in life. If I recall, Dalio separates his principles into those more for personal life and those more for business/dealing with others. I think the personal principles which you have full control of today, are worth comparing and contemplating first. Something such as “how to hire” may not be as relevant if you are not currently in a position to hire. (Counterpoint, it is worth flipping the principle around and consider how we might be a good hire or employee as an auxiliary exercise).
Personally, I found the diagnosing oneself immediately actionable.