inversion

Inversion Technique

**Origin**: Charlie Munger's "invert, always invert" principle; also found in de Bono's lateral thinking and Osborn's reversal prompters.

**Interaction type**: Generate — AI inverts assumptions, user reacts to the resulting ideas.

How It Works

1. **State the goal** clearly 2. **Invert it** — ask "how would I achieve the exact opposite?" 3. **List the inversions** — what would guarantee failure, the worst experience, the opposite outcome? 4. **Reverse each inversion** — the opposite of each failure mode is often a non-obvious success strategy

Inversion Patterns

Goal Inversion

• Goal: "Make onboarding fast" → Inverted: "How to make onboarding take forever?"
• Answers: No documentation, no buddy system, surprise requirements → Ideas: Pre-arrival portal, day-1 buddy auto-match, zero-surprise checklist

User Inversion

• Design for the opposite user: experts → beginners, individuals → teams, tech-savvy → tech-averse
• Forces empathy and reveals assumptions

Process Inversion

• Reverse the order: What if the last step came first?
• End-to-outcome: Start with the desired result and work backward
• Often reveals unnecessary steps

Value Inversion

• What if the biggest cost became the biggest feature?
• What if the bug became the selling point?
• Turns weaknesses into differentiators

Anti-Problem

• Instead of solving the problem, make it irrelevant
• Instead of reducing friction, make the friction delightful
• Reframe rather than fix

AI Application Notes

When using inversion internally:

1. Pick the most interesting inversion pattern for the current topic 2. Actually go through the full inversion (state goal → invert → list failure modes → reverse) 3. The best ideas come from reversing *non-obvious* failure modes 4. Present the resulting ideas without explaining the inversion process 5. Excellent for batch #2+ when initial ideas feel too "safe"