Do the Opposite & Work Backwards

Do the Opposite & Work Backwards

George Costanza?:?….. It became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I've ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have, in every of life, be it something to wear, something to eat... It's all been wrong.

Jerry Seinfeld : If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.

George Costanza :?Yes, I will do the opposite.?I used to sit here and do nothing, and regret it for the rest of the day, so now I will do the opposite, and I will do something!

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People often post about 'Success', and how they got there.

Let's talk Failure, the Lessons, & How to Avoid it

In fact, if you know someone who is unsuccessful...

Ask them 'How they got there?' so you know what to avoid.

Inversion?often forces you to uncover hidden beliefs about the problem you are trying to solve. “Indeed,” says?Munger, “many problems can't be solved forward.”

The Concept of Inversion was made famous by Warren Buffet’s business partner, Charlie Munger.

Per Buffet - “Long ago, Charlie laid out his strongest ambition: ‘All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.’

Inversion was actually created by a Prussian mathematician in the 1880s, Jacobi. His saying “Invert, always invert”?was a way to solve complex problems. Look at them backwards so new ways of thinking are opened up.

Many people in business now use this idea of ‘Reverse Thinking’, even the author of the Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris. He gave a talk in 2017 on his version: Why you should define your fears instead of your goals

Tim discusses the practice of Stoicism, from the Greek School of Philosophy in the 3rd Century BC. It means: the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings and without complaint.

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One would define their fears when analyzing a problem. Try to think of everything that can go wrong, so you can devise steps to take beforehand so it does not happen. It can also provide a process to handle it afterward, if something does happen. ?

You can train yourself on what you can control, and what you can’t control. In business, as in life, the stakes can be high, so control of one’s emotions is crucial.

You visualize your worst fears (called Fear Setting by Ferris), and what the cost of inaction will be on a problem. If you keep the Status Quo, and do not deal with the problem, what will happen. ?

Determine what you can do to alleviate these fears. ?

You now have a plan to solve a problem.

‘We suffer more in our imagination then in reality. - Seneca

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In a great Bog on Inversion by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street called -

Inversion and The Power of Avoiding Stupidity

He argues ‘Avoiding Stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance.’

Excerpt -

While both thinking forward and thinking backward result in some action, you can think of them as?additive?vs.?subtractive.

So what does this mean in practice??

Spending time thinking about the opposite of what you want doesn’t come naturally to most people. And yet many of the smartest people in history, have done this naturally.

Inversion?helps improve understanding of the problem. By forcing you to do?the work necessary to have an opinion?you’re forced to?consider different perspectives.

If you’re to take anything away from inversion let it be this:?Spend less time trying to be brilliant and more time trying to avoid obvious stupidity. The kicker??Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance

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Final Thoughts:?

“Once a person has an idea, we then start whacking at it. We invert?the concept. Instead of trying to prove a person’s idea, we try to kill it, and if we can’t kill it then the person is onto something. Whether it is my own idea or someone else’s, that is the process we go through.” - Bruce Berkowitz?

Thomas Edison’s immortal words on failure, is perhaps the best example of thinking from a different point of view…

When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?"

Thomas Edison replied, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

"Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe."