My favorite mathematician of all-time (everyone’s got one of those, right?) was the 19th century German algebraist Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi who was known for his constant repetition of one phrase: “Invert, always invert.”
I’m sure this helped him solve plenty of complicated math problems back in the day but this begs the question, Whooooo cares?
I care. And you’re about to care. Because today I’m going to tell you how this simple (not simplistic) idea, if taken seriously, has the potential to solve plenty of complicated life problems too.
OK enough teasing - let’s dive in.
What if hard problems had simple solutions when addressed backward?
The world is jam-packed with what to do, but it’s so much easier to identify what not to do. And here’s the kicker: don’t do that.
Instead of asking yourself, how can I be X?, simply flip the question on it’s head and ask, how can I be non-X?
Let’s go through a few examples to make this more concrete, shall we?
You, me, and just about everyone out there struggle with three universal life problems:
How can I be healthy?
How can I be rich?
How can I be happy?
It’s tempting to think these straightforward questions would have straightforward answers, right?
Wrong.
As soon as you go searching for solutions you quickly realize there’s no shortage of well-meaning, yet conflicting advice.
And then it hits you: answers to these questions are like assholes, everyone’s got one.
I’ve wasted countless hours pouring over ungodly amounts of the best advice out there in my attempt to crack the code only to end up more confused than when I started.
This is where inversion comes in to play.
There are, quite literally, thousands of prescriptions for how to be healthy. But how to guarantee sickness? That’s easy!
Never step foot inside a gym
Totally abuse your sleep patterns
Only eat food that your great grandparents wouldn’t recognize
How to become rich? Hard. But how to stay poor? Easy!
Bury yourself in massive piles of stinky, rotten, yet oh-so-tempting debt
Develop an insatiable appetite for the finer things and never be satisfied with anything less
Most importantly, lock in the habit of always spending more than you earn
How to be happy? Maybe the hardest of all. But how to guarantee misery? Yep, that’s right. Easy!
Constantly compare your real life to others highlight reels (social media is perfect for this)
Convince yourself the difficulties you face are unique and have never been conquered by anyone, ever
Suffer well in advance for all those future challenging times that you’re bound to have (most of which will never come to pass)
BONUS: How to be a great spouse? Hard. But how to be the worst spouse ever? I have mountains of personal evidence to confirm this one.
Always believe them when they scream, “I’M FINE”
If you fail to understand the power of inversion, then as Charlie Munger said, “You go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”
When in doubt, invert. Always invert.
Your thoughts? Comments? Complaints? Please leave a reply below.
Solid concept, Arman! When you know what not to do, you have your answer.
You wrote, “What if hard problems had simple solutions when addressed backward?” That sentence stuck with me. It makes me think that perhaps the complexity we see isn’t inherent to the problem, but rather to our approach. We get caught up in the "shoulds" and the "how-tos" that we lose sight of the obvious pitfalls. Inverting the question forces us to strip away all the unnecessary fluff and see the raw bones of the issue. It’s a refreshing exercise in clarity and honestly seems liberating. It makes me think about how much time is spent making things more complicated, when we could simply be making things easier by getting rid of what's bad for us first.