Ray Dalio on How To Change Your Mind

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

How do you know that you’re right? Modern business, politics, and even culture, tend to favor strident opinions and decisive action. To “flip flop” may then be construed as ineptitude, or even weakness. So it behooves us to “stick to our guns, “stay the course,” and adhere to other well-trodden idioms of the English language. Of course that approach may be limiting. And what if you are actually wrong? How will you know? What means testing can be involved in your thinking when to waver or even change your mind might undermine what you are ultimately trying to accomplish? Ray Dalio, an American investor, billionaire and the founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, has spent a lot of time thinking about this quandary. Countering its pitfalls is something he actively encourages, not only in business, but also in his personal life. In this wide ranging interview, Dalio sat down for a conversation with Intelligence Squared host John Donvan to examine what it means to being open to changing your mind, precisely how to do it, and what’s at stake if you don’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and
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0:11.1	enable flexibility and automate workflows. Plus, Slack is full of game-changing features
0:16.7	like huddles for quick check-ins or Slack Connect, which helps you connect with partners
0:20.9	inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at
0:26.9	Slack.com slash DHQ. If you want intelligent people, of course they have to be able to question.
0:36.9	Changing your mind, admitting that you were wrong about something you believed in. How
0:44.4	are you at that? And how important do you think it is that we be willing to switch sides?
0:49.3	Hi everybody, I'm John Donvent. This is Intelligent Square at America's premier debate series.
0:54.2	This podcast not a debate this time, but one in our ongoing series of conversations about
0:59.5	the place of debate in our world. Why is it that the changing our minds is so hard? And
1:04.4	why do we penalize mind-changing? No politician who changes sides in a policy debate is mocked
1:09.9	for flip-flopping. And as a culture, aren't more of us digging in on our beliefs now than
1:14.8	ever before? Where does this tension come from? And what's the evidence that being able
1:19.2	to change one's mind is a virtue? And if that's true, how do we get better at it? Well,
1:24.4	have a conversation about this I'm joined by Ray Dalio, who has made a fortune admitting
1:29.1	his mistakes and changing his mind and turning that experience into a way of doing business.
1:35.7	Ray Dalio, thanks so much for joining us on Intelligent Square. I'm looking forward to it.
1:39.4	So Ray, in 45 seconds or less, what are you going to persuade us of in this conversation?
1:45.6	Knowing how to deal with what you don't know is more important than anything you know.
1:50.4	That's it in a very, very tight sentence. And I think we're going to go a long way with
1:53.8	that thought. I want to introduce people who don't know who you are to them by telling
	...

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