Speaker 1: We all want to be successful, and as How I
Speaker 1: Work listener, you're probably actively looking for tools, tips and
Speaker 1: tricks that'll help you get there. You're seeking out the
Speaker 1: best modern minds and trying to understand what's made them successful.
Speaker 1: Good on you, but before you celebrate, you might need
Speaker 1: to consider the complete opposite approach. Darius Farrou writes a
Speaker 1: hugely popular blog for people who want to keep growing
Speaker 1: wiser and wealthier. So he spent a lot of time thinking, reading,
Speaker 1: and writing about the art of investing. The most powerful
Speaker 1: tool that he's come across in his years of research,
Speaker 1: sourced from the investing giants like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett,
Speaker 1: is a very simple thought experiment which involves inverting the question,
Speaker 1: so how does asking yourself what would make you unsuccessful
Speaker 1: actually help you achieve the opposite. My name is doctor
Speaker 1: amanthe Immert. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of
Speaker 1: behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and This is How I Work,
Speaker 1: a show about how to help you do your best work.
Speaker 1: On Today is my Favorite Tip episode. We go back
Speaker 1: to an interview from the past and I pick out
Speaker 1: my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I
Speaker 1: speak with Darius Firo about how to invert a question.
Speaker 2: When you invert a question, you basically look at something
Speaker 2: you should not do. Or let me just give an example.
Speaker 2: So a lot of people might ask themselves, how do
Speaker 2: I become successful? The thing is, in life, there are
Speaker 2: many ways to become successful, and there are also many
Speaker 2: definitions of success. But if we invert the question, and
Speaker 2: if we look at the opposite of success, and let's
Speaker 2: say in this case, will just you know, super simple
Speaker 2: say the opposite is being unsuccessful. And if you inverted
Speaker 2: and you say, well, how do I avoid becoming unsuccessful?
Speaker 2: And when you look at it that way, you kind
Speaker 2: of figure out that those answers are quite straightforward. And
Speaker 2: I actually learned this technique from Charlie Monger and Warren Buffett,
Speaker 2: you know, two of the greatest investors of all time.
Speaker 2: And that's a thought exercise that they would apply to
Speaker 2: the companies that they wanted to invest in, and by
Speaker 2: looking at are these companies doing things that might run
Speaker 2: them into the ground. So, for example, if I ask
Speaker 2: myself how do I avoid becoming unsuccessful? I could say, well,
Speaker 2: avoid being lazy or you know, sleeping in every single day,
Speaker 2: or avoid eating a lot of junk food every single day,
Speaker 2: or you don't have you know, all of those very
Speaker 2: simple and straightforward things that everybody knows. But the thing
Speaker 2: is that often we know what's not good for us,
Speaker 2: but we we still do it. And I don't think
Speaker 2: we do it on purpose, you know, Like I've had
Speaker 2: many years where I would just, you know, spend all
Speaker 2: my evenings full of entertainment, and I just wasn't aware
Speaker 2: of the alternative. I wasn't aware that some people actually
Speaker 2: don't watch TV all evening long, right, Like they might
Speaker 2: read a book, or you know, they might do something
Speaker 2: that they enjoy, like writing or drawing, creating art, you
Speaker 2: name it. So that's how I really use inversion. If
Speaker 2: I really want to achieve something that's a little bit
Speaker 2: complex and there are multiple answers, I try to look
Speaker 2: at the opposite and see whether that gives me a
Speaker 2: little bit more clarity. And if I can avoid the
Speaker 2: bad thing, I already have better odds at making sure
Speaker 2: that I do succeed.
Speaker 1: I wonder if you have something floating around in the
Speaker 1: back of your mind that you're trying to gain some
Speaker 1: more clarity around, I'd love to hear how you go
Speaker 1: inverting the question and seeing what solutions or thoughts that
Speaker 1: brings to mind. If you're looking for more tips to
Speaker 1: improve the way that you work, I write a short
Speaker 1: fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered
Speaker 1: that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets
Speaker 1: that I'm loving three to interesting research findings. You can
Speaker 1: sign up for that at Howiwork dot code That's how
Speaker 1: I Work dot co. I Work is produced by Inventing
Speaker 1: with production support from dead Set Studios, and thank you
Speaker 1: to mart Nimba who does the audio mix for every
Speaker 1: episode and makes everything sound so much better than it
Speaker 1: would have otherwise. See you next time.