Inversion Thinking

Instead of thinking about positive outcomes (assuming everything will turn out right), turn the process on its head by thinking what could go wrong and cause you to fail so you know what and who to avoid to maximize your chance of success or at least not being surprised so you’re able to make contingency plans ahead of time to compensate

You need to also do the more conventional process of thinking so you actually have an affirmative plan but it helps to know where all the mines are buried (like Minesweeper)

    • Squeak@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Yeah I don’t have to consciously do it. I have to consciously think of the positives.

    • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Maybe inverse thinking for you could be tempering all that with what might go right and leveraging that as a way to honor both the negative and positive capabillities of your mind.

      You’re telling me you couldn’t literally just reverse whatever your pessimistic insights were as a thought experiment and find a way to take both into consideration to inform your final approch or strategy for whatever is at issue?

      The best way I’ve come across to illustrate this is

      1. Hope/ideate for the best but plan or mitigate the worst
      2. How could this go wrong; tell me where I’m going to die so I can avoid thar
    • dmention7@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      The definition given is almost word for word the definition of an engineering mindset, regardless of field.

      I’d say it’s not a bad way to think about your life as well, as long as you limit the scope to things you realistically have the ability to impact and focus most of your energy on the actual problem solving.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I am getting so jaded with engineering these days. The engineering mindset seems to be to stifle all innovation and have endless meetings.