Thinking Backward

By Ramesh Akkineni
The mental habit of thinking backward forces objectivity. One of the ways you think a thing through backward is you take your initial assumption and say, Let’s try and disprove it.
For example, if you were hired by the World Bank to help India, it would be very helpful to determine the three best ways to increase man-years of misery in India—and, then, turn around and avoid those ways. So think it backward as well as forward. It’s a trick that works in algebra and it’s a trick that works in life. If you don’t, you’ll never be a really good thinker. - Charlie Munger

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