Visual Wisdom 26: The power of thinking in reverse.

Using the inversion principle to solve hard problems.

Hi friends,

Hope you guys had a good Christmas holiday! We cooked our regular Christmas special recipes (including some good Fish Molee) and enjoyed a relaxed weekend. This weekend, we also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Without her love and support, I wouldn’t be able to create this newsletter or the other 50 million side projects that I keep cooking up.

I am currently working on re-building my blog to house more long-form content. After a lot of back and forth, I have decided to make the theme of the blog as:

"The mindsets, mental models, and mechanisms behind successful individuals and organizations.”

I have also cleaned up my public notes and they are now available at notes.deepuasok.com. Do check them out! I recommend starting with this.

Here’s a snapshot of everything in store for this edition:

• The Idea of the week: Inversion Principle

• Tweet of the week: Less is More.

• Book of the week: Spark by John Ratey

• Quote of the week from Matt Ridley

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1. Idea of the week: Inversion Principle

The German mathematician Carl Jacobi was famous for his ability to solve hard problems by applying a unique mental model. He explained this mental trick in three words, “Invert, always invert”. 

Inversion is a powerful methodology used by great thinkers and innovators to solve their toughest problems. For example, instead of asking, “How can I become successful”, you ask, “What are the things that I can do to avoid failure”.

As a medical device engineer, I apply this principle almost on a daily basis. Once a basic design is identified, we spend a lot of time brainstorming ways that the product could fail and present a risk to the patient. Once we have identified all the potential failure modes and hazards, we can go back and make changes to the design to ensure that we avoid those potential failure modes.

In his famous 2007 Commencement speech at USC Law, Charlie Munger explained the value of the inversion principle.

“Problems frequently get easy, I’d even say usually they are easier to solve when you turn them around in reverse.”

“In other words, if you want to help India, the question you should ask is now how can I help India? You think, what’s doing worst damage in India?”

“What will automatically do the worst damage? And how do I avoid it?”

“You think they are logically the same thing but they’re not. Those of you who have mastered algebra, know that inversion will frequently solve problems which nothing else will solve and in life, unless you’re more gifted than Einstein, inversion will help yourself problems that you can’t solve another way.”

- Charlie Munger

So the next time, you are faced with a tough problem, invert it.

As Carl Jacobi says, “Invert, Always Invert”

2. Tweet of the week

Deepu Asok @Deepuasok

Sometimes less is more! - Ditch the complex task management tool and try a simple one. (like a sticky note) - Ditch that 10 step workout routine and do the big three (Squats, Bench Press and Deadlifts) - Ditch those 4 side projects and focus on one that really matters.

3. Book of the Week.

Spark is a book that will change the way you think about exercise. Almost all fitness books out there will tell you that exercise is good for your body. However, very few of them explore the benefits of exercise on your brain.

In Spark, John Ratey dives into the science behind the connection between bodily movement and a healthy brain. 

Here are some noteworthy ideas from the book:

A little bit of stress is GOOD for your brain.

“Assuming that the stress is not too severe and that the neurons are given time to recover, the connections become stronger and our mental machinery works better. Stress is not a matter of good and bad—it’s a matter of necessity.”

If you feel stressed, you should start moving.

“After all, the purpose of the fight-or-flight response is to mobilize us to act, so physical activity is the natural way to prevent the negative consequences of stress.  When we exercise in response to stress, we’re doing what human beings have evolved to do over the past several million years.”

Exercise has the power to heal broken brains.

“Studies show that if researchers exercise rats that have been chronically stressed, that activity makes the hippocampus grow back to its pre-shriveled state. The mechanisms by which exercise changes how we think and feel are so much more effective than donuts, medicines, and wine. When you say you feel less stressed out after you go for a swim or even a fast walk, you are.

Link to Buy on Amazon.

4. Quote of the Week

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