STREET DOGS

The ancient Stoic philosophers regularly conducted an exercise known as a premeditatio malorum, which translates to a “premeditation of evils”. Their goal was to envision the negative things that could happen in life – becoming homeless, paralysed or losing their status in society. They believed that by imagining the worst-case scenario, they could overcome their fears of negative experiences and make better plans to prevent them. While most people focused on how they could achieve success, the Stoics also considered how they would manage failure.

This way of thinking, in which you consider the opposite of what you want, is known as inversion.

The German mathematician Carl Jacobi was known for his ability to solve hard problems by following a strategy of man muss immer umkehren or, loosely translated, “invert, always invert”.

Inversion is a powerful thinking tool because it puts a spotlight on errors and roadblocks that are not obvious at first glance.

Charlie Munger encourages ambitious young people to consider the inverse of success. “What do you want to avoid?” he asks. “Such an easy answer: sloth and unreliability. If you’re unreliable it doesn’t matter what your virtues are.”

Marie Kondo in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up advises people to choose what they want to keep, rather than what they want to get rid of.

Inversion can be particularly useful for challenging your own beliefs. In a law court, the jury has to listen to both sides of the argument before making up their mind. Inversion helps you do something similar.

Inversion prevents you from making up your mind after your first conclusion. It is a way to counteract the gravitational pull of confirmation bias.