The pain button isn’t about recording pain.

Ray Dalio, the founder of the biggest hedge fund in the world, likes to talk about the concept of the pain button. Except, it isn't just a concept.

At his hedge fund, his team has developed a literal pain button app, an application people use all day long to record when they are wrong or when they feel pain.

The whole point of the pain button, however, isn’t recording the pain. It is making the pain larger. Ray Dalio believes we only learn by experiencing pain and reflecting on it. So, we need to make sure we remember the pain and are able to reflect on it often and in-depth.

If you’re a decision-maker, and you catch yourself making the same mistake twice, you haven’t learned. You might need a pain button yourself.