Monday memo #75

Solve the opposite problem.

The Monday memo is food for thought to fuel your week.

Hi everyone,

If you find yourself stuck, one thing you can do is explore the opposite. What is the opposite of the problem you’re trying to solve?

The goal isn’t to solve the problem directly, but to disrupt your usual patterns of thinking. Flip it. Turn it upside-down. Walk around it. Look at it from different angles. Ask non-obvious questions.

Inverting a problem gives you a new perspective. A fresh point of view can open up unexpected ideas and pathways.

If you’re thinking about how something might succeed, ask how it might fail. If you're trying to eliminate something, think about how to attract more of it. If you're considering what to add, ask what you could remove. If you want to go faster, explore what might slow you down.

Here are a few questions to try:

• How could you make the problem worse?

• How could you make it more complex or difficult?

• How could you make it cost more?

• How could you guarantee failure?

• What if it weren’t a problem at all?

Solving the opposite is a way of flipping your thinking—like paddling upstream instead of drifting with the current, or starting at the end of a maze and working backward.

Exercise.

Next time you hit a problem, flip it. Invert it. Ask how you could solve the opposite. See what happens.