I only read part of the book, but I don't believe this is a cult. A cult asks everyone to blindly believe in and follow the leader, which is not the case with BW, which encourages the employees to criticize the leaders. Many of the principles have merits on their own. On the other hand, BW seems to be a tough place to work unless you are in the inner cycle.
I believe we're all in different phases at different times. So what may help an individual, can be toxic to someone else (misunderstanding). Then we need to seek out what works and judge it by how well we think it works for us. The best is if/when we successfully judge ourselves. It's a first step. Sometimes, we're not able to, and need someone else to judge for us (psychologial issues, addictions and self-destructive behaviour). Those kinds of problems can go in cycles around and around indefinitely.
Yeah, it could be simply that I have never figured out that truth and that's why it all seems to be a waste of time to me...
Nah, nothing quite that profound... Just the grain of truth in self-help books that @newwurldmn was referring to.
That's confirmation bias you're describing. Funny how it helps a lot when trying to understand the 'advice' these fund managers seem to dispense generously. Last I checked Dalio ran a mutual fund with better marketing and risk management, so if that's what you need help doing his advice is surely worth it's weight in gold.
If you take this site as an example. There are a handful of "elite" posters (of which I would include, you, sle, GAT, and sig). While all of you come from different backgrounds and trade different strategies, you all exhibit similar habits in your thinking. All of you are often saying the same thing. I am confident that a newbie trader who internalized those specific attributes and thoughts would more likely to be successful than someone who just followed some rando's journal. If you look at consistently successful business executives, they all have similar traits. When I was working for the bulge bracket bank, I noticed consistent desirable qualities among all the senior managers (and many undesirable ones too). I believe that if you internalize those qualities, you can also maximize your potential.
You are confusing the professional success with quality of writing. For all I care he could be running a circus (sans the elephants, of course) as long as the ideas expressed in the book make sense and are well expressed. Nobody is saying that his ideas are new or unique, but he collated them well and added a few tweaks that are presented well. Same can be said for Taleb (the fact that Empirica failed spectacularly does not make his ideas without merit), Brown (he never managed to succeed as a trader, yet he is writing smart things about the markets), Michael Lewis (even though Liars Poker is full of hyperbolae) and so on.
I read through the glassdoor reviews again, which are obviously biased, but it confirms Sig's suspicion. There is definitely an element of criticizing the person in public.
Excellent the points of which this broker speaks. So many years of experience have made it all a relationship in the currency market. But what does he and his colleagues think about bitcoin, why does not he start to operate with them, what is his fear?