The following is an excerpt of John Donvan’s interview with Ray Dalio from the Intelligence Squared podcast, they discuss being open minded for decision making.
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John Donvan: Do you think there's that there's a trend in being open minded?
Ray Dalio: I think we're moving badly to it. I think you can see that in the in the nature of the decision making, when the cause that people are behind is more important than the system for resolving disagreement. The system is in jeopardy. And I think that you when you look at it right now, people are screaming opinions at each other. And, and almost demanding, like almost temper tantrums, the notion of moderation, the notion of thoughtful disagreement, to try to get the right answer cohesiveness. If you take the politics, the republicans are the most conservative that they've been since 1900. And the democrats by voting pattern most liberal or let's say, left, since 1900. And the voting across party lines has never been less. The statistic I think it was a Pew poll said that something like 15% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans wish members of the other party would die.
I don't know. But there's a lot of opinions and anger, and, and not as much open mindedness. And I'm not saying this just because of my interpretation. I'm saying that based on the statistics that I'm looking at, that go back over periods of time, so I don't see a great deal of that thoughtful disagreement. It's more like people are on. They have their opinions and they want to fight for their opinions and they don't want to exchange thoughts as much I don't think and think maybe I'm wrong, and let me hear the other guy. And that worries you. Yeah, well, history has shown that when there are large wealth values and thoughtful gaps, and you have an economic downturn, and there are, you know, other challenges that people fight for, and and it makes for More dysfunction. So, well, let's take, for example, the monetary policy. So, we're getting into the domain of economics.
John Donvan: Yeah, and let's just as we do this pivot, let me point out you you're coming out with a book in November, where you, you look at cycles of history, and and you have found previous time periods that represent some degree a model for the certain variables and being in place that you feel are in place. Again, now, the title of the book is changing world orders.
Full interview here.
