Experience does not equal expertise
Pain + Reflection = Progress (Ray Dalio's Principle)
Step 1 — Review: What worked? What didn't work? Just the facts, objectively.
Step 2 — Reflect: Dig deep. What assumptions did I make? What was the real root cause?
Step 3 — Distill: Extract a principle. Turn the lesson into a reusable system or checklist.
Build a rhythm: Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Annual reviews
Lost everything → Deep reflection → Distilled 'Pain + Reflection = Progress' → Built Bridgewater's radical transparency culture → Became the world's largest hedge fund
Kept a detailed trading diary for over 40 years, logging every trade to find patterns in his mistakes — turning data into principles.