man muss immer umkehren - Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

(loosely translated - Invert, always, invert)

Today, we will look at one of my favourite mental models called - The Inversion principle. Mental models are a set of simple, abstract but useful principles that help us make sense of the world around us.

I came across the Inversion principle on the Farnam Street blog. It is also a favourite of Charlie Munger (Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffets mate) - "...it is in the nature of things that many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward", he pontificates.

In another interview, he recalls how, as an Air Force meteorologist during World War II, instead of asking what would keep pilots safe, he asked what would kill them and focussed all his efforts "on trying to predict snow, ice or fog—and to ignore pretty much everything else.".

I could write a book on all the other cool stuff Charlie Munger has said so I'll stop here.

What is it?

Inversion is based on the maxim - invert, always, invert. It is about considering an inverse (usually a negative) outcome and listing the reasons for these. It forces you to either stop doing certain things or avoid the actions that lead to the negative outcomes. It gives us new possibilities and capabilities that we might not have considered otherwise.

The algorithm for inversion is very simple:

• Define the problem - what is it that you're trying to achieve?
• Invert it - what would guarantee the failure to achieve this outcome?
• Finally, consider solutions to avoid this failure

This is very abstract and vague, so let's look at a few examples:

1. Instead of asking how do we increase the adoption of a product or feature? You could instead consider - what are some of things preventing adoption? This would lead to a list like this that you could potentially fix:

• Slow load time i.e. performance issues
• Not enough marketing, or marketing on the platform, or to the wrong audience
• The user guide instructions are not clear ... you get the idea

2. Following the inversion principle it is better to ask what is preventing me from reading all the unread books on my kindle/bookshelf, instead of asking how can i read more books? Possible reasons and something you could give up:

• I spend a lot of time on social media
• I watch too many shows on Netflix or Disney +
• Spend a lot of time on reddit or browsing hacker news

3. Instead of wondering how do I always choose a winning stock during investing, ask yourself how do you prevent losses in the long term?

• Am I diversifying enough to prevent long term loss?
• Am I investing based on sound principles, or am I speculating?

Hopefully this gives you a flavour of how powerful inversion is as a mental model. I should add that it is NOT a silver bullet and it won't always give you concrete answers, but it will act as a forcing function to avoid obvious lapses in judgment. I'll leave you with another one of my favourite quotes about Inversion from Charlie.

"It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

“Real compassion kicks butt and takes names and is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this FIRE, then find a new-age, sweetness and light, perpetually smiling teacher and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual sounding terms. But, stay away from those who practice REAL COMPASSION, because they will fry your ass, my friend.” – Ken Wilber

1. Ignore the “Negative”

The notion that you make things worse by focusing on negative issues is false. Ignoring negative issues, like ignoring symptoms of an illness, only serves to make the issues worse. Refusing to look at critical information, just because it makes you uncomfortable, is willfully choosing a state of ignorance—to remain un-conscious.

Correction: Seeing the negativity for what it is creates an ability to steel oneself against its harmful effects and perhaps avoid them entirely.

2. Never Get Angry

“No one should ever get angry, it’s an emotion that needs to be purged from your system.”

Correction: While non-righteous and unchanneled anger is counter-productive to individual development and collective efforts to bring about collective change, righteous indignation can be a major motivation to create positive change in the world. If you are not outraged by what’s happening around you, you are not paying attention—you are unconscious.

3. It’s All One, So it’s All Good

Many New Agers tout concepts such as Right & Wrong as “dualistic” and therefore invalid. They try to convince us that EVERYTHING is OK because “we’re all one.” This is dangerous moral relativism.

Correction: “Conscience” literally means: “to know together”, to have “common sense”. It is the knowledge of the objective difference between “right” and “wrong.” We live in duality, Spirit is NOT superior to Matter—and it is NOT all good.

4. You Can Never Really Know

New Age Solipsism: The ideology that knowledge of anything outside of one’s own mind is unsure, there cannot be an objective reality and nothing can be truly known.

Correction: Perception is NOT reality: our work is to align the two. Solipsism is a defining hallmark of spiritual infancy. Departing from this diseased ideology is a sure-fire sign of the beginnings of human maturity and spiritual development.

5. Accept Injustice, Never Resist

The abuse of meditation and yoga. The New Age Movement has been distorting these practices into means to take people’s minds off the fact that they have been enslaved, and make it easy for them to accept the current condition of the world as their lot in life. “Never take action to try and change the things that are wrong with this world.”

Correction: Meditation’s correct purpose is rebalancing the left/right balance in the brain. Yoga’s proper purpose is to help us discover what our TRUE WORK is, and to motivate us to DO IT. Start saying “No.” The correct use of “force” is NOT the same as “violence.”

6. A Watered-Down Law of Attraction

The New Age variant of the Law of Attraction is largely based in the modality of Service-to-Self.

Correction: Natural Law: The REAL Law of Attraction is a system of Universal, non-man-made, binding and immutable conditions that govern the consequences of behavior. It is Service to Truth, not Self. We co-create our reality in harmony with Natural Law.

7. Turning the Other Cheek (it evens out the scars!)

The false notion of unconditional forgiveness.

Correction: True forgiveness does NOT mean continuing to excuse the willful commission of wrong-doing an infinite number of times. That is naiveté at best, and complicity with evil at worst. We must stand up for our beliefs and NOT tolerate the harmful actions of others.

8. Chaos Should Be Feared

If I give up my freedoms, then I’ll be safe. The current Control & Slavery system is about limitation of Free Will, of aspiration, through the destruction of possibility: the Death of Imagination.

Correction: Bridging the Divide: True freedom includes infinite possibility, which, by definition, includes the possibility of Chaos. This must be embraced without Fear if we are to be truly Free. “Anarchy” does not mean chaos: it means “No Rulers, no Masters.” We need to stop believing in “Authority.”

9. We Must Feel Good all the Time

We innately want to be comfortable, and this is played upon by our rulers, who constantly distract us with more and more ways to insulate ourselves from reality.

Correction: The Truth of the current human condition SHOULD make us feel uncomfortable. This is called awareness, consciousness. We should use that discomfort to motivate ourselves to create REAL CHANGE in the world through our ACTIONS.

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” —Carl Jung

10. Truth Doesn’t Need to be Defended

Never confront anyone on their bullshit (even though it is harming people). There is no need to defend truth.

Correction: WE are the vehicles by which Truth operates in the world. Wrongdoers should be held to account. A different reality can be spoken into existence by us, if we care enough to learn the Truth, and then develop the Courage and the Will to defend it at all costs.

Summarised from Mark’s Youtube presentations which you can find here

Final Thoughts

“That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.”—P. C. Hodgell

Abrégé de la pensée d'Épictète légué par son disciple Arrien, le Manuel -c'est-à-dire l'enkheiridion, le poignard que l'on a sous la main pour affronter toute éventualité- est voué à l'efficacité éthique. Il est bref et incisif par nécessité. Il ne s'adresse pas au sage, qui n'en a pas besoin, mais à ceux qui, parmi les non-sages, sont en progrès et s'exercent à la sagesse. Cahier d'exercices pour l'éducation philosophique, il donne non seulement les signes du progrès, mais aussi les ultimes conseils, et les marques qui pourront montrer que le pas décisif vers la philosophie aura été franchi. Ces signes, ces conseils et ces marques, le destinataire du Manuel doit les emporter avec lui, pour construire une oeuvre qui, s'appuyant sur les livres, est hors des livres, et ne peut être aidée par personne, sinon par le dieu qui est en lui.

Les Pensées de Marc-Aurèle, couplées avec le Manuel d'Epictètes, sont des classiques de la pensée stoïcienne d'une part, de la sagesse occidentale d'autre part, deux livres qu'on peut lire avec beaucoup de profit.

Nous vivons une époque intrigante. Nous sommes plus riches et en meilleure santé que tout autre peuple de l’histoire de l’humanité. Nous avons accès à la technologie, à l’éducation. Et pourtant, un sentiment général de désespoir nous envahit : tout semble foutu.

Si quelqu’un peut mettre un nom sur notre malaise et nous aider à le résoudre, c’est bien Mark Manson. Dans son nouveau livre, s’appuyant sur la psychologie et sur la sagesse philosophique, Manson dissèque la religion et la politique, examine nos relations avec l’argent, les divertissements et Internet, et constate qu’une trop bonne chose peut psychologiquement nous dévorer vivant. Il défie ouvertement nos définitions de la foi, du bonheur, de la liberté – et même de l’espoir.

Avec son mélange habituel d’érudition et d’humour, Manson nous met au défi d’être plus honnêtes avec nous-mêmes, et connectés avec le monde d’une manière que nous n’avons probablement même pas envisagée avant. Voici un nouveau guide à contre-courant de tout ce que vous avez lu auparavant, pour mieux apprivoiser la douleur dans nos coeurs et le stress de notre âme.

Un livre pour en finir avec la tyrannie de la pensée positive. Nous vivons dans la mauvaise conscience face aux succès de ceux qui paraissent heureux, efficaces, épanouis ; et, en cherchant à nous améliorer, nous nourrissons l'anxiété de ne pas y arriver. C'est cette spirale infernale que le blogger superstar Mark Manson cherche à briser. Il ne s'agit pas de se montrer indifférent à tout, mais d'être à l'aise avec le fait d'être différent, et de choisir les combats qui ont du sens pour nous - plutôt que de s'épuiser sur tous les fronts. Nous ne sommes pas parfaits, peu d'entre nous sont des génies : et alors ? Dans un style très direct et impactant, Mark Manson s'appuie à la fois sur des recherches scientifiques et des anecdotes personnelles bien senties pour renverser la table et guider le lecteur. Un best-seller du New York Times.

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