Inversion: Revealing Reasons To Drive Your Brain In Reverse

Inversion is a method involving turning a problem upside down to gain new perspective and aid decision-making. We take the aspect we were focusing on and flip it 180 degrees to assess it from a different angle. For example, rather than focusing on success, we would focus on avoiding failure. Or, instead of trying to figure out ways to be more productive, we might list things that would ensure we aren’t productive and use those insights. Using a different perspective can reveal what we do not see, even if it is in plain sight.

We may not realize it, but we rely on patterns to think, and these can sabotage our decision-making and problem-solving ability. We have blind spots and preferences. Inversion essentially pops the confetti in our cognitive apparatus’ face and forces it to think differently. It is useful to challenge our beliefs and value hierarchies. One can even use it on common adages: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” into “Split your eggs across multiple baskets.” or “Eat your biggest frog first.” into “Do not eat smaller frogs before you have eaten the biggest.”

Inversion is not new. Stoics used a method called premeditatio malorum which means anticipating the worst-case scenario. This helped them overcome fears and devise better plans—and can help us do the same. We can flip every stagnant belief. We know that, for instance, regular exercise and balanced nutrition are great for our health. Invert it. We also know that not moving at all and eating one unhealthy food group is terrible for our health. We can begin there: by moving a little and varying our diet a little.

The thinking tool can be applied to just about any area of life. Not failing or failing less is an underappreciated way to improve. Instead of looking for success, you should also assess how you can avoid failure. So, in place of trying to build the perfect relationship, ask how you might turn it into a complete mess: cheat, lie, criticize, condemn, complain, disrespect, withdraw yourself. In place of trying to stabilize your finances, assess what you would need to do to turn out an utter failure: spend more than you earn, get in debt, have addictions that eat at your wallet, have no savings or investments, gamble, take too much risk. Fixing things you are failing at can—and often does—pay more than looking for things to improve. And it’s often easier to do.

Inversion is one of the best and most versatile thinking tools. It can serve, well, almost any field and domain of life. You get the idea. Whatever you are trying to achieve and whatever you are thinking, invert it. By avoiding potential pitfalls, obstacles, and undesirable outcomes, you can mitigate risk and increase the likelihood and rate of your success. Use it on your goals: in lieu of defining what success looks like, ask what failure would be like and what is most likely to go wrong. Take action to avoid the worst-case scenario. Copy the Stoics: imagine the project, goal, or milestone has failed completely, and ask what could have resulted in the failure—also called a “pre-mortem analysis”.

It comes in handy when you are not sure on how you may handle a particular problem. Inversion pays: avoiding misery is sometimes as good as achieving success. What can you do that would put you furthest from your goal? What would make achieving it absolutely impossible? What would be the worst move you can make? What actionable steps can you take to make things worse right now? Don’t use inversion for everything—you’ll become a pessimist, not a better decision-maker—but use it to complement your thinking. See it as a stupidity filter: avoiding stupidity is easier than being smart.

Real life implications of inversion:

• Problem-solving: instead of asking “How do I succeed?” ask “What would cause me to fail?”;

• Goal achievement: frame goals negatively to uncover obstacles; so instead of “How can I write a book?” ask “What will stop me from finishing my book?”;

• Decision-making: instead of “What should I do?” ask “What should I not do?” and avoid those behaviors or options;

• Leadership: instead of trying to create the perfect team, ask what will destroy a team’s morale and avoid those practices;

• Health: instead of asking how you may become healthier, ask what would harm your health;

• Productivity: instead of asking how you might be more productive, ask how you are wasting time and/or productive output;

• Finance: focus on evading financial mistakes like impulse purchases and unneeded subscriptions, minimizing losses;

• Education: ask what would keep your students or you from learning effectively and avoid those actions;

• Marketing: instead of concentrating on what might attract new customers for you, ask what would turn them away.

How you might apply inversion as a thinking tool: (1) drive your brain in reverse, actively reframing questions into their opposites for a new perspective; (2) integrate it into your plans by conducting a so-called “pre-mortem analysis”; (3) use it regularly, not just for major goals, as it is a versatile and easy lens to apply with tremendous potential in pretty much every minor and major decision; (4) combine it with other mental models like scarcity for a deeper analysis based on the situation.

Thought-provoking insights. “The easiest way to solve a problem is to avoid it in the first place.” highlights the power of preventative thinking and pre-planning. “Do not multiply your problems by making mistakes you could have avoided.” eliminating errors can be just as powerful as improving. “What you don’t do determines what you can do.” reflects on how avoiding harmful behaviors translates to good ones. “Dig the well before you are thirsty.” refers to inversion’s potential to help you prepare for worst-case scenarios. This thinking tool is priceless for navigating uncertainty and growth in every area of life. “Invert, always invert.” as Carl Jacobi, the mathematician that popularized the term said. Always consider the opposite side of things.

Grab the framework and put inversion into action.

Questions to reflect on:

1. What are the possible outcomes if I intentionally do the opposite of what I normally do?

2. What mistakes can I avoid to achieve my goal?

3. What does failure look like in my situation 1 day from now? 10 days? 100 days? 1000 days?

4. If I were to reverse my approach, what new perspectives might emerge?

5. How can I solve my current problem by first understanding what would guarantee failure?

Quotes to drill in the concept:

1. "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms." - Socrates, classical Greek philosopher.

2. "Thinking is difficult, that's why most people judge." - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

3. "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist.

Example use cases:

1. Investment decisions: investors use inversion to identify potential risks to mitigate, ensuring sound decision-making. By knowing what not to invest in, you can narrow down safer and profitable options.

2. Product: companies use inversion to identify features that would make their users dissatisfied and work to improve or eliminate them altogether, improving the user experience.

3. Problem-solving: when faced with a complex problem, you can use inversion to understand what would make the problem worse, thus identifying actions to avoid in aim of a more effective solution.

4. Health: you can invert your habits to find the ones that negatively impact health and concentrate on avoiding them, resulting in a healthier lifestyle.