How You Can Think Invertedly — 5 Examples You Can Implement Now!

These examples have worked for me and can work for you too!

The best way to solve any everyday problems is not to learn a new skill set you will use rarely or to even pay someone else to solve the problem for you. Instead, I think one should always invert the problem or the typical solution to a problem.

“Invert, always invert” — Carol Jacobi

Simply, this means whenever you approach a problem, you should look at what’s not being said, and the easiest way to do this is to look at the exact opposite of what is being said to you.

For example, we’re told to find the right answer at school, but inverted thinkers would instead find all the wrong answers first, then the remaining answer should be the right answer.

Furthermore, domain-specific expertise is rather “domain-specific”. This is because the human brain isn’t wired to transfer concepts from one disciple to another. Ultimately, this means to be an inverted thinker, you must first practice the skill but also have a breadth of various skills to draw upon for inverted thinking.

To alleviate this problem, here are 5 domain-specific examples of inverted thinking, also known as inversion, to get you started on your journey.

1. Weight loss

Most weight loss blog articles will tell you the key to weight loss is eating fewer calories than you consume and doing high-intensity cardio with some low-intensity steady state cardio in the mix.

If you’re looking for a 6 pack, this may be the way to go but if you’re looking to not be too flabby there’s probably an easier way.

I used to be a little bit towards the heavier side, 10kg too heavy and my issue was that I didn’t like to cut out on food and I really disliked doing cardio.

So, what did I do?

I read a few articles and books on muscle building and weight loss and found a different way to approach my issue.

I ate a whole lot more protein and did a lot more compound exercises such as bench presses and pull-ups with minimal rest times. So, I’m still eating until I’m satisfied and losing weight without needing to do cardio.

I’m still not shredded but I’m nowhere near as fat as I used to be.

*Yes, these still adhere to the principles of consuming fewer calories than you expend since protein has fewer calories than carbs, and fast-paced weight training is essentially HIIT.

2. Dealing with conflict

We’re told that debates are good. If someone challenges you, you should be prepared to take someone on, or at least defend yourself until the end.

What if rather than defending yourself, you agree with the other person inside?

Jesus talks about after being slapped on one cheek why not offer to be slapped on the other.

Personally, I can tell you that this way works well to defuse arguments fairly quickly.

For example, I received some ‘feedback’ from a manager. I was never too impressed by the management style anyway, but rather than defending myself, I just agreed with what he said and said insightful things that I could do better. I kept on getting ‘feedback’ and I kept on using the agreement and self-reflection method.

By the end of the conversation, I was being offered freebies and even the manager self-reflecting on how he could’ve done better.

My work style didn’t really change from the conversation, but it did help me realize that firstly I need to follow the team culture a bit better, and secondly, I’m not that into the team culture and probably should find something else.

3. Writing

When we see people write blogs, we often assume that a good deal of research has gone into the blog post.

We can neither confirm nor disprove it. I can tell you that a good writer with a knack for pasting reference links where it seems good, can seem like someone who puts a lot of research into her writing.

I did the inversion of this. Rather than research hard, I leisurely read what I enjoyed and wrote a bunch of articles without referencing too much.

Out of 10 submissions, usually, 5 don’t do well, 4 do okay but the 10th article does surprisingly well.

Really, you don’t need to put all your effort into researching and writing one perfect article. You’re much better off reading and writing a lot and letting the masses decide which one of your articles makes it big.

4. Side hustles

The common attitude of starting a side hustle is so that you can eventually replace your job with it.

That itself sounds like a not-so-bad reason.

My side hustle of blogging is actually to provide income to my main side hustle of investing, which actually is not to replace my 9–5 job. And, my reason to do investing is not to make a large amount of money, although that would be nice, rather I’m pursuing an intellectual challenge.

My idea is a bit different here. I do side hustles not to replace my career but rather to keep myself entertained in my own spare time. And, really nothing demonstrates your own progress better than your seeing improving income for your own work.

5. Planning

Often we’re told that we should plan to succeed or else we will fail if we don’t plan.

I think there’s a degree of truth here. However, I seldom plan to succeed because success is just so hard to chase. Instead, I plan how not to fall into a complete disaster.

For example, I know I can’t commit to publishing articles every day of the week because frankly, life is too hectic.

I don’t even plan to publish on any day of the week, so instead, I focus on writing in my spare time. I know that I’ll fail to write if I sit down in front of my desk for 30 minutes. Simply, I’m too easily distracted from so many websites I could go on to, but I won’t fail to write just before bedtime — as a matter of fact, this story is being written in bed now,

This is like working out too. I’ll fail to commit to a straight 40 min workout because having a child is too hard. However, I won’t fail to do a superset of 10 dips and pull-ups if I walk past my power tower, which is just outside the toilet.

So, really I know I’ll fail at things that require commitment, so instead, I don’t plan for success but plan to have little contingency plans.

Conclusions

As you can tell, inverting how you think has nothing to do with thinking in completely opposite terms. Instead, it is looking at the problem you have, turning it upside down, looking at common solutions to the problem, turning them upside down, and finally trying different things out until they work for you.