How to solve problems by inverting the way we think
What is Negative and Positive space
Your eyes are used to see physical things that occupy space, our brains have evolved to focus on things that exists, while allocating low-priority or no priority to things that don’t exist or things that we don’t see.
In art, Positive space refers to areas where the main subject is positioned. Negative space is the area surrounding the subject.
Many artists leverage positive and negative space to created balanced art that can represent two different things.
Negative Space Theory suggests that many problems in life probably exist due to our focus on one side (the positive space) while completely ignoring the opposing side (the negative space).
by developing the skill of “Inverting the problem” or “inverting the way we think” about the problem, a brilliant solutions can be found.
Considering the opposite
What do you want out of life?
That’s a very hard question to answer.
What don’t you want?
That’s easy.
Saving money to achieve financial freedom is hard.
Making more money to achieve financial freedom is much easier.
Becoming healthy by finding healthy food is hard.
Becoming healthy by avoiding bad food is easier.
Most of happiness in life is just avoiding unhappiness.
The stoic philosophers believed that you could get the best outcomes in life by imagining the worst case scenario ahead of time and avoiding it.
Stop looking at how much money you make at your job, and start thinking about how much money you lose everyday by not creating value someone needs, it could be an app, or a book, or even a series of funny TikTok videos someone finds funny.
If you want to surround yourself with good people, it is much easier to just cut out the bad ones instead.
How To Leverage Thinking inversely
The greatest inventions in history didn’t come from improving existing solutions, but by diving into the negative space of what was possible and coming up with a completely new, unimagined solutions, think of the Bitcoin, Hyperloop, the iPhone, Reusable Rockets etc ..)
Be a contrarian, unleash your creative mind and stop thinking about only the things you see, instead, try imagining what could have been done differently.
Challenge every idea or thought you have, ask yourself, what if we invert the problem? what if we invert the solution? maybe there is no problem in the first place, or maybe the question is irrelevant altogether.
Always think about how many things you could do, but are not doing.
Thinking in negative space is the ultimate way to unleash the genius in you, It allows you to step outside your normal patterns, and see the world from a different angle.
