Inversion Principle
“All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there” - Charlie Munger
Inversion principle is a useful mental model to expand your thought process and come up with solutions that you might not have thought of otherwise.
The idea behind the inversion principle is “thinking backwards” so that you can avoid failures.
Say you want to have a productive day after going through an unproductive rut - the usual question you’ll ask yourself is “What can I do today to have a productive day?”. However, with the inversion principle you’ll start to think backwards with a question like “What should I avoid today to have a productive day?”
Instead of thinking about achieving success, think of avoiding failure.
This approach is way easier and the results are much more predictable.
When you question the opposite of what you seek, you’ll find yourself challenging assumptions, beliefs etc and this will give rise to a more objective line of path finding to avoid failure.
Invert Promotions & Get It
Instead of asking yourself “What can I do to get a promotion?”, ask “What is stopping me from getting a promotion?”.
While the first question might have a lot of good answers, chances are that most of them are based on assumptions and hypothetical scenarios. However, the second question will force you to think backwards and acknowledge possible pitfalls that you’ve already seen/experienced, which is much more indicative of the future.
Some of the answers to your second question could be:
Lack of manager interaction
Poor participation in new initiatives
Low levels of assertiveness
Unable to showcase your work
Not mentoring new joiners
Bad time-management during crunch seasons
It is much more feasible to fix these problems than going with the approach of “What can I do to get a promotion?”
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Implementing the Inversion Principle
We will explore the process with the example of time management during quarantine.
Step 1, define the goal.
Use time more efficiently during quarantine.
Step 2, invert the question
Turn “What can I do to be more productive? Into “What can I stop doing to avoid being unproductive?”
Step 3, explore possibilities
Look at possible solutions like:
Stop using social media during productive hours
Avoid checking emails through out the day
Avoid waking up late
Avoid caffeine close to bedtime
Stop family members from disturbing often during working hours
Stop defaulting to YouTube whenever I’m bored
Just addressing these problems will make your day reliably better than trying new things based on assumptions.
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And that’s it.
The inversion principle can be simple and yet super effective mental model.
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Thanks for reading & keep it rational.