The Inversion Principle

“All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.”

— Charlie Munger

Some problems are easier to solve backwards than forwards. This is the inversion principle.

If you want to be healthy, don’t look at pro athletes and try to copy them. Look at unhealthy people and do the opposite. There are a bunch of common behaviours of unhealthy people. They are likely to:

• smoke
• drink in excess
• never exercise
• eat lots of sugar
• have a bad sleep routine

and so on. You can be pretty healthy just by doing the opposite.

Let’s take managers next. What are the common traits of bad managers? Well, they:

• don’t set clear objectives or deadlines
• take credit for others’ work
• care about themselves more than their team
• don’t tell you how to improve
• focus on inputs rather than outputs

And so again, you can be a better manager by avoiding these behaviours.

Once you start looking for it, you can see this principle everywhere.