Bridgewater and Ray Dalio
How is nobody talking about this on the forum?!?! Is this the downfall of Bridgewater? Maybe, that’s a bit dramatic. What does everyone think?
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are you referring to the Rob Copeland book?
Yes!
what a last name
People have said that it's just petty soap opera
Read a couple chapters of "Principles" and you will see why those in the industry are not shocked. I guess mainstream thought Ray was a good guy cause he wrote a book to tell everyone how they suck and can do better if they follow his rules.
Never liked his book from day one. Honestly, if you are in an industry based on a lot of luck, you really shouldn't be dispensing wisdom on how to run an organization.
I'll take organizational advice from someone who built a $1 billion dollar widget business any day over someone who made a billion in the market.
He sounds just like a more extreme version of a guy I used to work for. Basically a total psychopath that has decided to credit the more neurotic aspects of their personality for their success. Its not 100% wrong, but gets taken way too far and turns into a way to justify treating other people like garbage by dressing it up as some kind of deeper insight.
Honestly the culture sounds toxic and frankly I don’t get it. What’s the point if only a small number of people manage the money anyways? I know a few people that have worked there and it fwiw seemed a lot broader than what many suggest.
The culture has always sounded miserable. It sounds great in theory kind of like polyamory or communism but I just can’t see anyone normal not having mental health issues from the lack of privacy and being constantly monitored. I kind of like the idea of radical honesty in theory but the problem with that approach is I’ve never seen a situation where your boss wants you to actually be radically honest with them.
People have been investing money in companies that have treated people like shit long before Bridgewater and will do so long after. I feel like it's more of an attack on the MBAs and startup cofounders who read Dalio's books and think he's some sort of management guru.
My personal view is that dalio embraced meglomania after 2008 turned him into a true master of the universe. If you read the book, "Principles" and the associated enforcement tools were only created around 2009 and before that the process was far more casual. Post 2008 he stopped focusing on investments and bridgewaters returns have suffered accordingly.
One thing I've noticed is that raising money for a hedge fund is very much like a magic show. Once people understand how the trick works, they quickly lose interest. So if you want to succeed as a hedge fund manager, you not only need to demonstrate a sustained ability to generate alpha, but you also need to come up with a fairy tale to explain your success. Turning bridgewater into a cult fulfills that purpose, since no other hedge fund could ever run themselves like that. The reality is that Dalio was using the cultish behavior to extract the maximum amount of revenue from his partners while he cashed out his ownership. Yes he burned hundreds of millions of dollars on useless projects like the dot collector or by employing hundreds of employees on his Principles projects, but he also collected billions in fees from clients during the same period.
Now that everyone understands that the emperor has no clothes, I imagine that pure alpha is going to see a lot of redemptions. "We succeed because we have a unique process based on a religious book" is a much better story than the truth that "We run carry + momentum while charging 2/20, and 80% of our employees are just there to make us look good and prestigious"
Ray Dalio, what a guy man
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