Ray Dalio thinks everyone should read these 3 books - and they have nothing to do with finance

Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater founder and co-CIO Ray Dalio reads an advertisement from 1901 the explorer Ernest Shackleton posted in hopes of finding a crew for an expedition to the South Pole. Dalio says he wants to be as blunt as Shackleton was about the challenges of working at Bridgewater so that he can find the best employees.

Ray Dalio isn't like other investors.

His firm, Bridgewater Associates, is the world's largest hedge fund - with about $150 billion in total assets under management - and it's run according to a culture of "radical truth" and "radical transparency."

Dalio has built a workplace according to his vision of the world, and that entails meetings that are filmed to be potentially analyzed for lessons and an iPad app where employees rate each other's performance in real time.

Dalio is the co-CIO and chairman of Bridgewater, but stepped away from daily office management earlier this year. To mark the occasion, he published the first of two planned books, the first called, "Principles: Life and Work." It's both a short autobiography and an expanded version of his intensive list of management principles that every Bridgewater employee reads when they're hired.

During his book tour, he spoke with "The 4-Hour Workweek" author Tim Ferriss for an episode of Ferriss' podcast. Ferriss asked Dalio what books he would recommend to any new college graduate, and Dalio responded with three titles he thinks everyone should read. The books, which have nothing to do with finance, offer a glimpse into Dalio's mind.