Inversion
The Promise
Ask how to fail first, then refuse to do those things. The traps you avoid matter more than the moves you make.
How It Works
- State the goal, then invert the question. Replace "how do I succeed at X?" with "what would guarantee I fail at X?" The inverted question is almost always easier to answer.
- Run a premortem before commitment. Imagine the project has failed twelve months from now. Ask why. The reasons surface failure modes that forward planning skips.
- Build the avoid-list before the do-list. The avoid-list is shorter, more durable, and more actionable than the do-list.
In Practice
Forward thinking is blind to its own traps; wanting a plan to work is exactly what hides its holes. Inverting the question routes around that filter. The failure modes it surfaces are typically few, well-known, and concrete. Avoiding them leaves a decision space where ordinary judgment is enough.
Source book
Primary source: Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack.
Reading is the easy part
Install it, don’t just read it.
Inversion is walked from principle to practice in The Identity Install. Get The Achievement Blueprint free, then one framework a week, every Tuesday.
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Keep going
Ch 9 · The Momentum Playbook
Map Is Not the Territory
Your plan is a drawing of the terrain. Re-draw it when the terrain changes.
Primary source: Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity.
Ch 7 · The Identity Install
OODA Loop
Observe, orient, decide, act. Loop faster than the situation drifts.
Primary source: John Boyd, A Discourse on Winning and Losing.