每日原则：了解人们怎样处事和判断这种处事方式能否取得好结果，这比了解他们做了什么更重要

了解员工是什么样的人，这是预知他们未来能如何承担责任的最好途径。在桥水，我们把这叫作“多看挥杆姿势，少看击中与否”。由于结果好坏可能与环境有关，而与个人处理问题的方式不相关，因此评估员工绩效时最好既看逻辑过程，也看最终结果。我很坦率地检查他们的思维方式，不让他们摆脱责任。这样做使我学会如何评估别人的逻辑，以及怎样使自己做事更有逻辑。如果发现结果及其背后的想法都很糟糕，且这种情况多次发生，我就知道我不应该再让他们这样去思考问题了。

例如，如果你是扑克玩家，玩过很多次扑克，你将有赢有输，在某一个晚上，可能在你离开时，你口袋的钱比一个不常玩扑克但手气好的人还要少。但以一次结果就判断一位玩家的水平，这是错误的。要从较长期来看，他们玩法好不好、结果如何。

Knowing what people are like is the best indicator of how well they are likely to handle their responsibilities in the future. At Bridgewater, we call this "paying more attention to the swing than the shot." Since good and bad outcomes can arise from circumstances that might not have had anything to do with how the individual handled the situation, it is preferable to assess people based on both their reasoning and their outcomes. I probe their thinking in a very frank way so as not to let them off the hook. Doing this has taught me a lot about how to assess others' logic, and how to have better logic myself. When both the outcomes and the thinking behind them are bad, and when this happens a number of times, I know I don't want them to do that type of thinking anymore.

For example, if you're a poker player and you play a lot of poker, you will win some hands and lose others and on any given night you might walk away with less money than a lesser player who's gotten lucky. It would be a mistake to judge the quality of a player based on just one outcome. Instead, look at how well someone does what they do and the outcomes they produce over time.