Farnam Street published an article titled Inversion and The Power of Avoiding Stupidity.
« Spending time thinking about the opposite of what you want doesn’t come naturally to most people. And yet [many] of the smartest people in history, have done this naturally. »
« Let’s take a look at some examples. Say you want to improve innovation in your organization. Thinking forward, you’d think about all of the things you could do to foster innovation. If you look at the problem by inversion, however, you’d think about all the things you could do that would discourage innovation. Ideally, you’d avoid those things. »
« Inversion helps improve understanding of the problem. By forcing you to do the work necessary to have an opinion you’re forced to consider different perspectives. »