· 2 min read

Inversion

Probably the most powerful mental model

Mental models are heuristics that help in conceptualizing common occurring themes and help in better decision making.

Clarity is power. If you know something well enough, the decisions you make around that information will have a higher chance of being accurate.

One way to gain more clarity, which I have written about extensively, is being truthful.

Being truthful assumes that what you know to be true may not be 100% truth but you’ll speak, act and convey in a way in which you know it is as true ads possible.

To gain more clarity, the other size of telling the truth is exploring the unknown, what you do not yet know or understand.

Thinking is effective ways to explore what you don’t yet know.

Inversion is a technique that helps understand the other side in a much more structured manner.

In inversion, you invert the argument or statement.

For example:

If you want to plan to do X.

  • Straight Way of Thinking: How will I achieve X
  • Inversion: How will I fail at achieving C

Once you know how you would fail, you can take steps to avoid failing. Inversion can be applied recursively. Aka you can try to find arguments against your arguments.

One can also treat inversion can a healthy debate

Inversion forces you to think from the other side. And it helps increase the probability of actually achieving the task you set out to achieve.


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