Reverse Reverse

Ever found yourself paralyzed by a decision or a problem that felt too big to solve?

When moving forward feels murky, there's a simple mental trick that flips everything on its head: look at it backwards.

I'm going to do an entire separate article on mental models in the future, but let's do a quick review of what mental models are.

Mental Models

Mental Models are thinking patterns that one can adopt like a "mental tool" to get what you want. One of the best resources on the internet for mental models is Farnam Street.

Here are some of their thoughts on mental models:

A mental model is a simplified explanation of how something works.

Any idea, belief, or concept can be boiled down to its essence. Like a map, mental models highlight key information while ignoring irrelevant details. They’re tools for compressing complexity into manageable chunks.

Mental models help us understand the world.

Welcome "Inversion"

Inversion today was popularized by Charlie Munger, business partner to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway. He is famous for saying "All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I will never go there.".

The idea is to approach a problem forwards and backwards. Inversion flips problems upside down to identify failure points instead of seeking direct absolute guarantees.

Another way to look at it is instead of going for excellence, go for avoiding stupid actions.

For example, say you wanted to make someone happy. Easier approach would be: How would you make sure someone was miserable?

• Mess their sleep schedule; blue light before bed, sleeping late, 3-4 hours a day
• Mess up their nutrition; fast food, burgers and fries
• Isolate them; no real life interactions with people, no community
• No meaning; hates their job, no hobbies
• Constant comparison; make sure they compare their life with others on social media

Avoid these you'd be 95% there!

Another example is, how can I be financially free? Inversion: How do I guarantee I stay broke?

• Spend more than you earn
• Take on a ton of consumer debt
• Never level up your skills or self invest
• Never keep an emergency account
• Buy liabilities never assets

Avoiding stupid mistakes is the way

A lot of times in life we are the biggest obstacles in our way. Impatience, lack of information, and a number of factors cause us to do more harm than good sometimes.

The Inversion model helps repurpose hard questions that arise at times and allows us to have more ownership over things we do have control over. By asking ourselves these repurposed questions it also forces us to do the research into things we'd much rather avoid.

Inverting the problem won’t always solve it, but it will help you avoid trouble. You can think of it as the avoiding stupidity filter. It’s not sexy but it’s a very easy way to improve.