Person
Ray Dalio books: every book Ray Dalio wrote and recommended
Across 9 podcasts. Every show Ray Dalio appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Ray Dalio
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Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises
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Principles
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Changing World Order
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Big Debt Crises
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Principles for Success
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How Countries Go Broke
Ray Dalio’s most recommended books
- The Republic by Plato
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
- Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman
- River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins
- The Lessons of History by Will Durant
- Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay
- Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Ray Dalio is an American billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds. Appearing on podcasts such as The Diary Of A CEO, The Jordan Harbinger Show, Modern Wisdom, and On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Dalio discussed and recommended several works that shaped his worldview and historical analysis. When asked about books he frequently gifts or recommends, he highlighted Richard Dawkins's River Out of Eden, Will and Ariel Durant's concise history Lessons from History, and Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He also recommended Martha Whitmore Hickman's Healing After Loss, noting the high quality of its daily advice for individuals experiencing grief. In discussions concerning political systems, democracy, and global economic cycles, Dalio repeatedly referenced Plato's The Republic to illustrate how democracies function and why citizens may vote against their own long-term interests. Furthermore, he reflected on his own writing process, citing his books Principles and The Changing World Order to explain how he studied five hundred years of historical arcs and how individuals can constructively manage interpersonal disagreements.
Books recommended by Ray Dalio
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The Republic
Plato's foundational classical text "The Republic" explores justice, political structures, and the nature of reality.
Discussed“Plato talked about this cycle. And no. In the Republic. And he talked about the democracy and the problems with the democracy, because the people don’t vote for what is good for them.”
Where to get it
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The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell is a seminal study of comparative mythology that outlines the universal narrative structure of the hero's journey, detailing stages such as departure, initiation, and return.
Recommended“And then um Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Is it the the hero with a thousand faces? Yes, that’s it. Hero with a thousand faces.”
Where to get it
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Principles
Principles by Ray Dalio is a prominent business and life guide written by the billionaire investor, detailing the systematic mental models and foundational guidelines he developed throughout his career.
Discussed“because like I I wrote in my other book principles one of the handy things is if you're having a disagreement”
Where to get it
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Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio is an economic and historical analysis that examines the rise and fall of major empires through long-term cycles of debt, economic shifts, and geopolitical power.
Discussed“and then what you see in the cycles you you just see the mechanics of the cycles and it went back to plato and his described by of the republic”
Where to get it
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Healing After Loss
Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman is a comforting daily devotional offering gentle reflections and practical advice for those navigating the painful experience of grief.
Recommended“we read a page from this book that a friend sent us and you know each page there each date has a page and it has advice about healing after loss and i must say that the quality of the concepts and and so on are very good so i would recommend this anybody who's going to have a loss”
Where to get it
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River Out of Eden
River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins presents a compelling materialist exploration of evolutionary biology, adaptation, and the mechanisms of natural selection.
Recommended“There are three books. There’s a book on evolution but written by Richard Dawkins. Uh River from Eden, I think it’s called.”
Where to get it
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The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant is a concise 104-page summary distilling five thousand years of historical patterns, human behavior, and the rise and fall of civilizations.
Recommended“Then a book by um Will and Ariel Durant, which are the maybe the greatest historians in time, and it’s called Lessons from History. It’s a very short book. I think it’s 104 pages. They wrote massive amounts about 5,000 years of history and so on and they sort of condensed their lessons, lessons from history.”
Where to get it
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Changing World Order
Ray Dalio's Changing World Order is a sweeping macroeconomic exploration of how major global empires rise, decline, and transition through cycles of debt, economic dominance, and conflict.
Discussed“and if you read history plato's republic you know he talks about the cycles democracy you know an autocratic and the benevolent despot and all of that each has their own vulnerability”
Where to get it
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Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay is a classic historical study examining mass hysteria, economic bubbles, and recurring crowd behaviors throughout history.
Discussed“I think of McKay's book extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of the crowds and it's about that phenomenon and that was written in 1640 something around there looking backwards and so on”
Where to get it
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Memoirs of Hadrian
Discussed“Well, it's like there was a book that was Hadrian's memoirs that was a book about Hadrian speaking in his own words and so on, and he had conquered, and he described that, I think, very well.”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (19: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I wrote my most recent book to explain how it works with 35 examples was called How countries go broke.”
“Now when you understand that that dynamic works through time and you get down to its individual s symptoms and in other words there's in in my book u um principles for dealing with the changing world order which I wrote about five years ago.”
“Um in my book I um show 18 measures of health having to do with education, military um um reserve currency, a number of measures that show strength. Okay, what is the level of strength? And the United States is the strongest power which has been in relative decline and experiencing these conflicts. Um and that's measured if if you”
“Well I I um because of that my last book my most recent book put out about a little less than a year ago um is called how countries go broke. Yes. The big cycle. And what I wanted to do and is to just show 35 cases of it.”
“The book before the last one is called principles for dealing with the changing world order. And if you read it, you see the pattern.”
“But draw the lines in that book the changing world order that I did. I go have 500 years of industry. You can see the lines education levels production you could all these things.”
“So, anyway, for those who are interested, the changing world order is explained in my book principles for dealing with the changing world world order.”
“Well, like I say, I I think to really understand that either of my books, Changing World Order or How Countries Go Broke the Big Cycle. Either of those would be good.”
“Well, like I say, I I think to really understand that either of my books, Changing World Order or How Countries Go Broke the Big Cycle. Either of those would be good.”
“so the data is largely public data that's available for anybody we just you know collect it from all different spots and go back through history like I did in changing world order”
“So I needed to study 500 years, which I summarized in a book called 'Changing World Order.'”
“I think what you're doing in "Principles" and putting them in one place, I think that's really special.”
“I did this study not to write a book. I did the study because um because these things that are happening now did not happen in my lifetime. So, I wanted to study the cycles and like the rise and decline of reserve currencies, empires, and so on. So, I needed to study the last 500 years. And so, what”
“And so I think that what's next for me is um I probably will um there's this book which is passing along what I think are the most important things of our time. Um and thoughts people can take or leave them, but I think they're important. Others have thought Henry Kissinger um Larry Summers others have said that this”
“some of the principles that i wrote in in principles helped me a lot”
“i hope they'll read chapters eight and nine in the changing world order because it's about internal order and disorders”
“it was uh the five types of love”
“I mentioned in my book principles and describe the process in a more complete way than we're gonna be able to go here”
“so I did a another book on principles principles of big debt crisis that go into that and it's free by the way I met put it free online on as a PDF”