As we’ve discussed, Ray Dalio is one of the most influential (and wealthiest) people on the planet. In his great book Principles, he walks us through HOW he created his success and wealth.
In addition to embracing his weaknesses and learning from his mistakes while executing his 5 Step Process to Get What You Want in Life, Ray also used some Artificial Intelligence to rock it.
In Principle 5.11, he tells us to “Convert your principles into algorithms and have the computer make decisions alongside you.”
In fact, he tells us that when we combine human intelligence with machine intelligence, we can 100,000x our efficiency and effectiveness.
In Ray’s case, he created a supercomputer that comes astonishingly close to predicting markets — close enough to make him and his clients billions of dollars.
How’d he do that? Well, in addition to feeding tens of millions of pieces of data into that supercomputer of his, he wrote some algorithms.
He gives us a super simple example algorithm. Imagine you want to keep your house at 68 degrees. What do you do? You set your thermostat with a simple if-then algorithm. If it’s less than 68 degrees and it’s not between midnight to 5 a.m., then turn on the heater.
That’s the easiest way to get your Artificial Intelligence on. And, again, when you do that enough times, you create HUGE efficiencies.
But I think there’s another AI that’s even more powerful for our Optimizing purposes: Ancient Intelligence.
Rewind 500 million years ago when the basal ganglia showed up in vertebrates. And, recall, that our basal ganglia is basically what helps us put certain behaviors on autopilot. Programming our Ancient Intelligence to let THAT supercomputer run the show is the secret sauce to Optimizing.
Psychologists would agree. They also tell us that we need to write algorithms, only they call them “Implementation Intentions.” Same basic model: If this, then that.
Today’s +1. Let’s do some AI programming.
Step 1. Decide you want to get the house that is your life nice and warm and happy-toasty.
Step 2. Start programming your supercomputer.
For me, it looks like this: If I wake up in the morning then I meditate and do Deep Work before going online. If my 1,000-second timer goes off and I’m sitting then I stand up and move my body. If I feel fear then I say, “Bring it on!” and do what needs to get done. If the sun goes down, then all electronics go off.
If this then that. Non-stop Optimize-AI party all day every day.
That’s the ultimate AI. As Dalio says, traditional AI programming can increase productivity by 100,000 fold. Here’s how I do that math with our Ancient Intelligence: If you can make a decision to do the Optimal thing ONCE you save the effort (and enormous amount of willpower) of deciding 1,000+ times. If you make 100 wise decisions like that then you just increased your Optimizing efficiency 100,000 fold.
I say we do that. In fact, I challenge you to see if you can come up with 100 micro-algorithms!
And note: The #1 algorithm? One word: Areté.
If I’m alive, then I’ll strive to express the best version of myself.
btw: One of the reasons Dalio loves working with his computer is that, unlike humans, it’s unemotional. It just does what it’s programmed to do. That’s another reason we need to program our AI. On those days when we’re feeling the worst, we need to let our well-programmed supercomputer run the show, Robot, Do This! style!
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