>[!abstract] >Inversion is a mental model that consists of looking at a problem from an opposite view. For instance, instead of trying to maximize profit or success, what would make us incur losses or fail, and how do we avoid those conditions? >[!quote] >It is remarkable how much long-term advantage we have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent^[Attributed to Charlie Munger, but the source could not be located.]. >[!quote] >Ramo describes how [unlike in professional tennis,] in amateur tennis, about 80 percent of points are lost, not won. Lost points, as defined by Ramo, are those resulting from a player making an unforced error, such as hitting an easy return out-of-bounds, rather than hitting a brilliant shot that is impossible for an opponent to return. The lesson is that the vast majority of amateur tennis players will have much more success by working on “not losing,” rather than by trying to “win” ([[Livingstone, 2018]]). Note: the same thing happens in chess where amateur players tend to lose to blunders, whereas grandmasters tend to win by deploying superior strategies. >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[First principles thinking]] >- **West** (similar): [[Red teaming]] >- **East** (different): [[Confirmation bias]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Pre-mortem analysis]]