The culture Ray Dalio created at Bridgewater Associates is often criticized

Listen to Ray Dalio break down his most valuable principles in life and work

Dalio's now-famous principles started out as a collection of rules the finance behemoth set for himself. Since then, the list has expanded, becoming required reading for all Bridgewater Associates employees. In 2017, Dalio published an expanded version of these rules called "Principles: Life & Work," which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.

'The Fund' exposed culture problems and scandals at Bridgewater Associates

In 2023, Rob Copeland—who covered Bridgewater Associates for The Wall Street Journal for 10 years before moving to The New York Times—wrote a book that drew from interviews, company documents, and meeting recordings. "The Fund" highlighted sexual harassment scandals, a company contract to hire strippers, and a toxic company culture. Dalio has criticized the author for being sensational and a gossip.

Watch Ray Dalio's TED Talk on building an 'idea meritocracy'

In 2017, Dalio gave a TED Talk called "How to Build a Company Where the Best Ideas Win," which largely focused on Bridgewater's highly documented company culture and leadership principles. Dalio's TED Talk focused on one of his most well-known principles, "radical transparency," as a way to create an idea meritocracy.

Ray Dalio allegedly punched one of his early bosses

Before founding his hedge fund, Dalio traded commodities and futures. In 1974, Dalio allegedly punched one of his departmental bosses, causing him to lose his job at Shearson Hayden Stone. He founded Bridgewater Associates the following year. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Listen to why Ray Dalio seeks out disagreement

One of Ray Dalio's principles is to constantly be challenged by smart people. He says thoughtful disagreement is key to becoming smarter and making better, more thorough decisions.

Ray Dalio officially left Bridgewater Associates in late 2025

In 2017, Ray Dalio began a multiyear transition out of his leadership role at his company. He officially left his role as cochief investment officer and ended his tenure as the board chair in 2022 at 72 years old. How much Dalio made in the selloff of his Bridgewater equity in November 2025 isn't publicly known, but Forbes estimated his net worth to be $15.4B as of early 2026.

Watch Ray Dalio break down his 'holy grail' investment strategy

As a hedge fund manager, Dalio's investment strategy relies on insulating investments from economic downturns. To do this, Dalio attempts to diversify investments as much as possible while considering the correlation between industries and markets.

Hear how Ray Dalio spends his time since he retired

Dalio emphasizes finding meaningful relationships, both in work and in life. After officially retiring from his hedge fund, Dalio says he spends his time learning, reading, and trying to mentor younger generations.

Learn more about Ray Dalio's formula for progress

Across interviews and in his books, Dalio often emphasizes the importance of learning as much as possible to avoid making bad decisions. However, Dalio also often speaks about failure being a great teacher. One of his core principles is "Pain + Reflection \= Progress."

Hear Ray Dalio talk about the growth of the Chinese economy

Dalio was an early advocate of US investment in China. While he has previously criticized the authoritarian regime, his criticism of the government has been labeled mild relative to his praise for economic growth and innovation—critics argue that he has minimized human rights violations in the country.

Ray Dalio considers betting against the US debt load in 1982 among his biggest failures

In the early days of his hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio calculated that the US had accumulated more debt than it was possible to repay. He took short positions in the market that backfired when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and avoided a global economic collapse. Dalio lost everything and even had to borrow $4K from his dad—but often describes this experience as one of the most pivotal moments in his career.

Ray Dalio argues that American capitalism is broken, citing economic factors like a growing wealth divide

Dalio also points to stalling income growth, weak healthcare systems, and poor educational outcomes when arguing that American capitalism needs serious reform. However, critics point out that Dalio has amassed a large fortune by running the world's largest hedge fund and question whether Dalio really wants economic reform.

Ray Dalio credits much of his success to his transcendental meditation practice

Dalio took up transcendental meditation after learning that The Beatles practiced it on a trip to India in 1968. He says the practice allows him to clear his mind, be more creative, and unlock his subconscious.

Read Ray Dalio's reflection on his son's death

One of Dalio's sons, Devon Dalio, died in a car crash in December 2020. In a LinkedIn post, Dalio said Devon's death triggered an enormous amount of pain and reflection.

Deemed the 'Woodstock for Capitalists,' Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting draws thousands of attendees

They all gather to hear from Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha” himself, as he answers questions from investors. Some even run a 5K while they’re there.

Airbnb's Brian Chesky explains 'Founder Mode' and how he took back control

The short-term rental CEO learned hard lessons through the pandemic, specifically around a culture focused on management and not building products. In the fall of 2024, Chesky gave a well-received speech at a startup conference that prompted debate in the startup world. He summarizes the talk here.

X's quirky culture clashed hard with Elon Musk's extreme leadership style

Investigative journalists have written that social platform X's open, sometimes chaotic workplace stopped when control shifted irreversibly from Jack Dorsey to Elon Musk. They claim the stark contrast in personalities left little protection for existing employees, culture, or users.

Just because a big name company is going public doesn’t guarantee a successful stock

A reporter dove into how highly anticipated IPOs can still be risky, and why retail investors should be wary of investing right away.

Everyone knows each other’s salary at this company

At social media management platform Buffer, employees have been able to see each other’s salaries since the year 2013. This article explains how Buffer's decision to make these numbers public has impacted the social media company's workplace culture, internal wage growth, and more. Read the article here.

It has historically been tough for minorities to rise through the ranks in investment banking

According to a Barron’s article, only about 1.3% of the $69T asset management business is managed by firms led by women or minorities—even if their performance is comparable to those led by white men.

A lot of what consultants do all day is intentionally kept a secret

Consulting firms also often keep their clients private to maximize the sectors they’re able to secure contracts for and avoid any perceived conflicts of interest.

Modern workplaces were engineered for efficiency, not work-life balance

Modern work organization traces back to 19th-century scientific management, an approach that optimized output by viewing workers as machine components. That logic still persists today and contributes to burnout, stress, and disengagement. Researchers propose a "circular work" model that combines effort with recovery, learning, and renewal, suggesting productivity and well-being should align rather than compete.

Read Palantir CEO Alex Karp's most recent shareholder letter

Alex Karp's latest shareholder letter details both the company's outlook and recent performance, but also provides insight into what leadership finds important more generally. In this letter, Karp addresses Palantir critics and external concerns about the use of Palantir's technology for government surveillance.

Court documents reveal how Anthropic destroyed millions of books to build its AI models

Anthropic cut the bindings from purchased books and discarded them after scanning to rapidly collect high-quality text at low cost for training Claude. This, despite hiring the former head of partnerships for the Google Books project, which nondestructively scanned millions of books borrowed from libraries before returning them.

Amazon has historically opposed efforts among its employees to unionize

Amazon has done everything from creating mandatory anti-union meetings to hiring union-busting consultants, and even engaging in employee surveillance. Such efforts have proven to be a lightning rod for pro-labor groups.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

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Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.