Inversion Thinking Will Change Your Life
Inversion Thinking Will Change Your Life
Three Point Essay #31 | How to be a Miserable, Poor, and Overall Rotten Person
Here’s a three-pointer to open your mind.
A couple years ago when I first started studying markets, seeing the stock price of Berkshire Hathaway shocked me: 400,000+ per share.
It’s one of the most successful companies of all time. Their vice chairman, Charlie Munger, helped Warren Buffett build their investment holdings empire. An empire that oversees 958.8$ billion USD in assets.
Munger credits a mental model called inversion thinking for much of their success. He believes that ‘the nature of hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward.’ This is because our minds are better at identifying problems than solutions. As we evolved, our brains needed to be good at detecting threats to survive the harshness of nature.
So instead of asking how to be happy, rich, and good, let’s list the best ways to be miserable, poor, and evil, so we can do the opposite.
How to be miserable
Never be thankful for what you have, only ever think about what you don’t have
Spend the majority of your attention on social media
Don’t sleep for 6-8 hours
Don’t lift weights under any circumstances
Drink alcohol 3 times a week at least, and blackout every time. Avoid water on the days you don’t booze as much as possible
Limit your time outside in nature as much as you can. Don’t go for walks, and if you do, scroll on your phone the whole time
Don’t tell your family you love them every day
Have your self-worth based on the opinions of others
Compare yourself to other people as much as possible
If there is something you love or are obsessed with, stop doing or pursuing it once people make fun of you
Be okay with mediocrity; don’t bet on yourself in anything
Take career advice from people who make decent money, but despise their jobs, and have become resentful and bitter because they didn’t chase their dreams
Ignore that curious young version of you who still exists in your heart who had big dreams and only wanted to do things he loved. Instead, let other people drown the true you out, conform to society completely, and laugh at your old aspirations as stupid
How to stay poor
Go to the casino while drunk or high, better if both, and aggressively play roulette the whole time
Listen to poor people talk about money
Don’t consider long term investments. Chase short term gains by following stock picks of gurus on Twitter
Sports bet & play blackjack as much as you can. Make sure to devote significant amounts of your attention to mastering these fields, instead of other subjects
The next time you see a cryptocurrency 100x, hop on the hype train and buy the top without understanding what you poured money into
Never be patient. If it didn’t make you a millionaire today, drop it and look for something else
When learning a profitable skill—like another language or writing or coding—make sure to not do it for too long. Give up, so your abilities don’t compound
Listen to Business school professors
Never think about creating your own product or service to sell on the free market. Instead, maintain an employee mindset and strive to be stuck in a 9-5 job
With social media and the internet, only consume content, never create: you want make sure you have less opportunities by not putting yourself out there
Say you’re going to do something, but don’t do it. Instead, stay infatuated with all your ‘million dollar ideas’, while never executing on them
How to be a bad person
Never smile
Don’t look people in the eye or shake their hand when you meet them
When you see someone who is clearly socially anxious, never, ever, help them out
Express hatred for anyone who disagrees with you on anything
Don’t show genuine interest when people talk to you, only think about yourself
If someone shares good news with you, one up them—don’t really acknowledge what they told you, instead, share a story of your own while subtly suggesting it is superior
Never consider that other cultures may have some value. Know for sure that where you were born and every single thing you’ve been taught is inherently better than other places and their ideas
Be spineless—never talk shit to your friends face, only behind their back
Blame your family or friends for all your problems
Lie whenever you get the chance
Be a fan of New York sports teams
As you may have guessed, I’m guilty of some of these. Hopefully you can use these ideas to (not) become a sad, mean, poverty-stricken person.
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