Wisen's notes

# Inversion Thinking

A mental model or thinking habit where we turn a situation or problem upside down.

# References

Inversion Thinking: How Charlie Munger Avoids Stupidity with Investing (opens new window)

“Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward. What happens if all our plans go wrong? Where don’t we want to go, and how do you get there? Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail – through sloth, envy, resentment, self-pity, entitlement, and all the mental habits of self-defeat. Avoid these qualities and you will succeed. Tell me where I’m going to die, that is, so I don’t go there.” - Charlie Munger

Inversion: The Power of Avoiding Stupidity (opens new window)

~Charlie Munger (opens new window)~, the business partner of Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is famous for his quote “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” That thinking was inspired by the German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, famous for some work on elliptic functions that I’ll never understand. Jacobi often solved difficult problems by following a simple strategy: “man muss immer umkehren” (or loosely translated, “invert, always invert.”)

“[Jacobi] knew that it is in the nature of things that many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward,” Munger counsels.